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Don’t Forget the Introvert: The Quiet Strength of Your Business

The office environment in the 21st century has been marked with a push towards creating a more collaborative, open and interconnected work place. While some may argue that “open” and “collaborative” are just a way to save on office furniture, there are certainly a number of benefits a company can gain from a more cohesive and team-oriented environment.

There is however an overlooked component to all of this, the introverted employee. Studies have shown that introverts make up one-third to one-half of the population and, as Francesca Gino recently wrote in a piece for the Harvard Business Review, “Introverts typically dislike noise, interruptions, and big group settings. They instead tend to prefer quiet solitude, time to think before speaking (or acting), and building relationships and trust one-on-one. Introverts recharge with reflection, deep dives into their inner landscape to research ideas, and focus deeply on work.”

So if the most significant minority of employees works more efficiently in a quieter, reflective environment, why are we pushing this “open” concept plan?

Susan Cain, author of the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, contends in her Ted Talk that, “Our most important institutions, our schools and our workplaces, they are designed mostly for extroverts and for extroverts’ need for lots of stimulation … We have this belief system right now that I call the new groupthink, which holds that all creativity and all productivity comes from a very oddly gregarious place.”

While we should allow introverts the opportunity to develop ideas and foster creativity on their own, forcing everyone to work by themselves and not engage with fellow employees is not exactly productive either.

“Business is about balance. It’s about ensuring the contribution of everyone with something to give is maximized. Introverts are as important to your business as extroverts. And partnerships are better than lone ventures—for everyone involved,” wrote Zoe Goodacre of NetApp told Forbes.

“Introverts make extroverts stop and think. Extroverts take that message to the people.”