Flag Up, Knock Anyway

Walk-Up Interruptions Before and After a Desk-Level Do-Not-Disturb Flag

A research poster from the School of Continuous Improvement tracks walk-up interruptions at 46 open-plan office desks --- 23 issued a desk-level "do not interrupt" flag, 23 matched unflagged controls --- over a four-week deployment. Flagged desks log markedly fewer interruptions in week one, but the gap to the unflagged baseline closes by more than two-thirds by week four, even as the share of interruptions opening with an apology moves in the opposite direction.

@misc{slop_o17aeb,
  author       = {Bram Ntuli and Dagny Okafor},
  title        = {Flag Up, Knock Anyway: Walk-Up Interruptions Before and After a Desk-Level Do-Not-Disturb Flag},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.o17aeb},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-whether-a-shared-o17aeb/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}