In recent time the world around us has changed. We are now surrounded by a digital crowd than that of live humans. Working solo, talking to faces on machines, and at times being on your own to make a decision, which otherwise you would have turned right or left or even walked five paces to a colleague to seek opinion. Meetings now seem so meaningful rather than a snooze over a cup of coffee.
But is this a better situation? Now, if you think that I have a response to this question and I am just going to rattle it out at the end of this article, the answer is "NO", I will do no such thing.
I am just looking at the perceptive and talking aloud it, hoping that you have points to ponder at the end of our interaction. Each one of us can cull out our own benefits from it. Whatever is your argument and take on the subject, it shall lead to learning, an opinion that shall help you every time you need to start on a new task in Isolation.
Susan Cain, author of "Quiet", an international bestseller, in her article, "the Power of Working Alone", makes a persuasive argument that working alone versus in a group has a much better overall outcome. She further states this in her opinion by giving examples of how working in solitude produced better results showing historical and in her own personal examples. As Cain writes, what actually happens when people work together in groups, and most of it isn't pretty. On the other hand, individuals almost always perform better alone than groups both in quality and quantity. Group performance gets worse as group size increases. The reasons brainstorming fails are instructive for other forms of group work, too. People in groups tend to sit back (meeting = snooze over coffee) and let others do the work; they instinctively mimic others' opinions, lose sight of their own; and, often succumb to peer pressure. Many Brainstorming sessions are to the scrap heap of plausible business techniques that actually may have worked well. Unfortunately, habits win over ideas or evidence.
There is one significant exception to this rule: groups that come together digitally, rather than in the real world, are often very creative, innovative, and productive. How can this be? According to Cain: The protection of the screen mitigates many problems of group work. This is why the Internet has yielded such wondrous collective creations.
Marcel Proust called reading a "miracle of communication amid solitude," and that's what the Internet is, too. It's a place where we can be alone together -- and this is precisely what gives it power.
However, with over three decades of corporate environments, it's a hard decision to make. Being initially instructed and later regimentally steered teams into the pen—the joy of celebrating success together and the euphoria of hearing your voice is very satisfying. A Groups focuses on the end results. Each team member, with their blinders on, executes his part of the activity. In a group, critical usually activities have a backup, which generally goes into a tailspin resulting in a chicken and egg situation. Then in a group, there was always a go-to man in the group who invariably, at the last minute, can pull a rabbit out of the hat and short cut to the result, not debating on the endurance of the solution that he provides. Isolation had a very different approach, conceive, plan, execute, and achieve. Your Group discussions have been replaced with online research. The Internet helps in generating and improving ideas.
The downside is that social modes and tools dominate the business conversation so completely that we risk downplaying or eliminating individual work and reflection. And this tendency is reinforced by the fact that social work is usually a lot more fun. It's usually a blast to digitally swap ideas, tweet, update, share, comment, 'like,' and multitask with multi-people. It's usually a drag to take yourself away from all that, sit down, disconnect, and start writing, sketching, coding, diagramming - in short, to start thinking. Isolation is more of a tidal wave phenomenon, spurts of fantastic solitary work with a lot of initial discomfort and why-am-I-doing-this? Followed eventually by enjoyment and accomplishment.
Getting over that initial hump is hard. And people might stop trying if they start believing that digitally facilitated ensemble work suffices. It doesn't. It's essential, but it's not enough when genuine novelty is the goal. We - YOU - also need to spend some time alone, just thinking. The poet Charles Bukowski got it right: "Isolation is the gift."
