Is the Allen Curve still true?
https://influenceonline.co.uk/2018/02/22/distance-communications-public-affairs/
In the 1970s, many countries including the United States and the Soviet Union assigned similar projects to engineering teams to design and develop more advanced weapons and equipment. However, projects are not getting done as quickly and efficient as expected. Some teams completed it faster than others who also had the same project. So Thomas Allen, a MIT Professor was asked to investigate the reason to why that was the case. First he located the teams who were both working on the same problem. Then he measured and compare the quality of their solution and came up with a list of common reasons to why they were successful. The most successful teams were not smarter or more responsible, but it was driven by members who were good communicators. Allen noticed that the farther people are distanced apart, the frequency of their communication decreases. Allen plotted the level of communications against distance and this became the Allen Curve. The Allen Curve shows that communication decreases as distance increases and becomes stable at around eight meters, at a 5% probability of communication once a week. Other research also shows that people are more likely to communicate with people sitting next to them, supporting the Allen Curve. The Allen Curve shows that close networking is important in order to be efficient and successful when working in a team.
Since so many years have passed already, there may be some contradictions to Allen’s theory. Westminster in England is the central of politics and the media. According to Allen Curve, how are people who live far away from London get their voices heard. People who doesn’t live in Westminster are still having some difficulties having their voices heard by the government which is clearly explained by the Allen Curve. However, there are some limitations to this. Although, geography and distance matters, but there are other solutions they can use as alternatives to physically being there. With the modern convenient transportation systems, one way is to travel and attend some of the political events. People can also stay updated through recordings of the event. Since it’s much easier to form networks today, people can express their opinions to the government by writing letters and social media such as Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Working with local political organizations can also help bring their thoughts and insights to the issue. Being farther away doesn’t mean you are excluded, but it just means that you need to be louder.
Clearly, the Allen Curve is not true in today’s society anymore. I’m not saying that communication is not important, but distance is no longer a problem. The amount of communications has increased tremendously. There are so many ways to communication today such as phone, mail, television, news, social media, etc. For example, in the summer, I was working for a cooperate office where all of our meetings were held through video calls because the team members were based of different locations. Even most interviews now are being held online through video chat or over the phone. One Instagram post could get hundreds of likes in minutes. With this increased amount of communication, networking becomes very accessible and easy compared to the past. With that being said, communication and networking is still very important because that’s how we bring our thoughts to many people, however, distance is no longer a limiting factor in our frequency of communicating.
Nice analysis.