"The collaboration curse", from January 23rd edition of The Economist

This article struck a cord with me. Working in secondary education and that one of the learning skills that make up the ethos of 21st century skills is collaboration and that now the business world thinks that skill is manifesting itself into an problem, is a little unsettling.  

Being a coach I have always believe in teamwork, but I also have an slight anti-social aspect of myself when it comes down to the work environment. No I do not know everything but sometimes I feel that, "too many cooks do spoil the broth" and collaboration can slow productivity down.  

That (The Economist, 2016): "a growing body of academic evidence demonstrates just how serious the problem is. Gloria Mark of the University of California, Irvine, discovered that interruptions, even short ones, increase the total time required to complete a task by a significant amount. A succession of studies have shown that multitasking reduces the quality of work as well as dragging it out."

I have always believed that some situations need "less talk and more rock" (WBCN circa 1984) and the past couple of years I have felt guilty about feeling that way...this article makes me feel that I am still OK. :-)