> I cannot speak for yakult, but be careful with generalizations like:

>> If you overhear a conversation and even understand what it is about you clearly aren't focused on your(!) work. So you are in an unproductive state.

That is not an generalization. Explanation follows:

> I would often go to coffee shops to work because I found it very difficult to focus unless there was a certain level of conversational white noise.

Listening to other people is distraction. When you listen and think about what somebody is talking you can't think about your task at the same time. That's the opposite of being focused.

I know there are people having problems to focus on something and need distraction every few minutes. But that's another problem. That people often even think they are productive when they think about several things at once and make jumps in their head from one thing to another, but they simply don't even know what it means to be focused (because they don't have that ability at all).

> it was great to be able to jump into a conversation on a project I wasn't a direct stakeholder in just because I had something to add

From a project management viewpoint that's not great. When somebody is assigned to a task he has to dedicate all the time he is paid for to that task. And not using this time to solve other peoples issues by chance. It also makes tracking the time which was spend for a task imprecise. When e.g. two people where assigned but actually three people where doing it the next time estimate can go wrong because the time someone just jumped in can't be tracked correctly (and on the contrary that time is missing on the other task).

There is a time you sit together and discuss how to make something and then there is the time you actually do it following the agreed plan. In the second phase you need to concentrate so you shouldn't get distracted. Distraction in the second phase is a killer to productivity. Thinking about other peoples problems is distraction.

> There are any number of day to day things that aren't covered in stand-ups that simply pop up organically.

That isn't a problem, that's normal. Send an email, use the chat channel or open a ticket... The small things that pop up can be discussed asynchronously or even later. When you can't do any further work without getting feedback the ahead of time planing was bad and you have to discuss things in more detail the next time. Simply use more time for discussing and planing so disruptions of the working time of others afterwards can be avoided.

>> There is also no question about whether disturbances are good or bad: They lower productivity and induce stress. This things were shown many times by different scientific studies. This point isn't for debate.

> Of course there is a question and of course it's open for debate. We know this because we're not all robots - different people are different.

That question is already answered by scientific studies.

People are indeed different and like I said there are even those who think they can do multitasking. But that's an illusion. The difference between people is only in the amount of drop of productivity. When you try to do several things at once you will have accomplished less at the end of the day. That's a proven fact.

> in my opinion the magic formula isn't to stick everyone alone in a room and say "talk more", but it's to offer a combination of both open spaces and solitary offices to fit the needs of the individual.

Of curse there must be space for both collaboration and focused work. You have to have both. So open offices alone are bad. Individual offices alone are bad, too. You shouldn't be in one of the areas all the time. When you discuss your teams next steps it's much simpler when sitting together. But when you work on the execution of the agreed plan, you have to have a quiet place on your own.

When you can't stay focused in solidity and without distraction you have to work on your ability to concentrate. Maybe it is even a medical condition like ADHD.