Great Leaders Work in Cubicles

Accessibility and Openness is a culture promoted by Open Plan Office Layout.

Great leaders are working as part of the team in a open plan workstation type environment rather than the traditional glass enclosed corner offices as emphasized in this article by Steve Tobak:

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg runs the city much like the namesake company he founded, using a bullpen where everyone sits together in a large open room like a Wall Street trading floor. He presumably learned the practice as a trader at Salomon Brothers. It’s designed to promote accountability and accessibility.

Meg Whitman, who recently won the republican nomination for governor of California, grew eBay from a young startup to an Internet giant from an eight-by-eight foot cubicle. But the practice of moving top executives out of the corner office and into cubicles probably began with Intel CEO Andy Grove.

In a 2001 speech, Carlene Ellis, Intel’s former vice president of human resources, credits the company’s much copied corporate culture with Grove’s fervent belief that everyone be treated the same:

The Andy Grove I know is a leader who is open, honest, and direct. Andy has nurtured an egalitarian culture at Intel. A lot of people talk about it; he does it. There are no executive perks at Intel; no executive dining rooms, no executive washrooms, no special places to park. And we all work in a company where Andy Grove’s cubicle – which I think is about eight-by-nine – is just like everybody else’s.

That open environment that everybody jokes about – it is the essence of that open environment that allows people to communicate directly and solve problems in a collaborative fashion.

In fact, Intel’s model has been replicated at dozens of successful companies in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Source: http://blogs.bnet.com/ceo/?p=4821&tag=nl.e713