The results were definitive: Friends outperformed acquaintances on both tasks. The reason? Friends were more committed at the start of a project, showed better communication while doing the activity, and offered teammates positive encouragement every step of the way. They also evaluated ideas more critically and gave one another feedback when they were off course.

The impact of having a friend at work.

I’ve been asking that question as part of a survey in most of my client org’s for the last few years. There’s always a handful of people who feel offended to entertain the notion of having a friend at work. I always feel the worst for them, that they think work is solely a battlefield where their ambitions are either laid waste to or lay waste to others.