Quickthink

Does making people feel better work as a business model? Conversely, do managers who create or nurture conflict damage productivity? I think most people would agree that the answers are yes and yes.

But how much do we actually pay attention to these issues as we work? I think the answer generally is not enough. Why not? Tunnel vision about getting things done tends to reduce our sensitivity to how we do it. That is why I like stories that open our eyes about stress and stress reduction. And I think this is a good one.

Some school administrators in the southwest US were looking for ways to improve the way kids handled lunch. The lunch room was very noisy and the kids tended to eat too quickly. Is that just the way kids are? Perhaps. But consider this. The standard school routine was for the kids to eat lunch and then go outside to play. Why? Who knows. It was always done that way. What about switching this routine around to have recess first and then lunch?

It seems like such a little thing. But after making the switch, the school found that the kids were more calm at lunch, ate much better and had fewer health issues during the day.  Here is the link for the story. Now who would have thunk that? Of course, one psychologist pointed out that the kids might perform even better still if they started the day with some breakfast.

Such little things?

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 4:22 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.