I know I do.  I like sitting where there’s natural light but not too glary; where I can get eye contact with people entering the room and roughly in the middle of the boardroom table wherever possible so I’m “amongst the energy”…  It turns out I’m not alone and that most people exhibit territorial behavior when they take seats in public places, limiting themselves to small areas so they don’t have to “renegotiate” seating arrangements with other people.

Researchers in one study by Marco Costa of the University of Bologna in Italy, found that even university students showed strong attachments to specific areas of a lecture hall; on average, each student made use of just 2.4% to 2.7% of the seating area.  

So what does it mean?  I’m not sure – but it’s certainly interesting and I bet if you do a stock take of meetings over the coming week you’ll find the same thing going on in your workplace.  I guess there’s an opportunity to shake things up by taking the dominant leaders’ places at the table too, if you’re up for it!