7 Unexpected Ways To Improve Team Productivity

More greenery.

Scientists at the University of Queensland in Australia have found that an office decorated with plants can increase employee productivity by 15%. “The” green “office conveys to subordinates the idea that the employer cares about their well-being, — says co-author of the scientific work, professor of psychology Alex Haslem. “Greening the space makes it pleasant and comfortable.”

For the first time, the study assessed the impact of a green environment on productivity. It took place in three offices in the UK and the Netherlands. For three months, scientists recorded the degree of job satisfaction and concentration of employees.

“The results suggest that investing in greening the office will pay off by improving the quality of life and productivity of employees,” the researchers conclude. Haslem says the experiment’s findings are contradicted by the popular idea that minimally equipped spaces increase productivity.

Novelty and experimentation.

Hawthorne experiment conducted by a group of scientists led by Elton Mayo at the Western Electric factory in the USA

© Baker library historical collection

One of the most famous productivity experiments in the 1920s led to the theory that outcomes were influenced by participants’ interest in research, the novelty of circumstances, and awareness of the importance of their participation.

For eight years, a team of scientists led by psychologist and sociologist Elton Mayo has been trying to change the working environment at Western Electric so that the productivity of relay assemblers increases. The researchers organized two groups: the control group, in which there were no changes, and the working group, in which the conditions were constantly adjusted.

At various times, scientists have improved lighting, changed working hours, added new breaks, and changed other external factors.

The discovery was that productivity increased with each new change, and almost always not only in the workgroup but also in the control group. Mayo speculated that the morale of the women workers grew stronger as they saw that the company was interested in improving conditions and caring for their well-being. Even those pickers, whose working conditions did not change, felt their involvement in the experiment and began to work faster.

The experiment that revealed the Hawthorne Effect has many critics. Some believe the women worked harder because they feared layoffs. Others point out that efficiency gains may have triggered rewards for participating in the experiment.

Pizza and praise are more important than money.

Duke University psychology professor Dan Oreilly conducted an experiment that he described in his book “Compensation: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivation.” The scientist divided the workers of the Israeli semiconductor factory into four groups and promised each of them a reward for the daily assembly of a certain number of chips.

One group, he promised to praise at the end of the week, another was to receive $ 30 as a bonus, the third received a coupon for free pizza, and the fourth received nothing. A week later, the category of workers who were promised pizza showed a 6.7% increase in productivity compared to the control group. The phrase “Great job!” increased efficiency by 6.6%, and money only by 4.9%.

At the end of the study, praise became the undisputed leader, pizza dropped to second place, and the deprived control group settled in third. Monetary motivation has been lost to everyone.

“The external conditions are no longer important: the increased salary is taken for granted, the bonus is spent, the new position does not sound so significant as soon as you get it,” explained Wharton School of Business professor Adam Grant in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “However, the feeling that others appreciate your work stays with you.”

Out-of-office dining.

A Right Management study showed that only 20% of Americans regularly go to lunch, and 39% usually eat at their computers without being distracted from their work (we have even more in Business Tools — 80% of our team prefer office lunch). What is the threat?

For a good memory and quick assimilation of information, the brain needs to constantly receive energy. Snacks at the workplace are not the best alternative to lunch, because, in addition to nutrients, the body requires a break. The respite reduces stress levels and improves creative thinking, making the employee more efficient in solving day-to-day tasks.

Kimberly Elsbach, professor of management at the University of California, Davis, argues that it is necessary to change the environment, and it is better to dine in the natural environment — in the park, patio, or at least by the window. (It was decided, with the arrival of heat, we will arrange corporate lunches in the fresh air!)

“People subconsciously perceive you as more loyal and reliable if you are constantly sitting at your desk, but this has nothing to do with the quality of the work,” says Elsbach. The DeskTime Work Time & Productivity team found that users who took regular breaks of 17 minutes were 10% more efficient.

Sleep at the table.

A number of studies have shown the beneficial effects of taking short naps during the day. In 2002, researchers at Harvard University asked participants to complete a visual task in four sessions on one day. The sun sank lower and lower, and the subjects worked worse and worse.

However, when the researchers gave them the opportunity to sleep 30 minutes after the second session, the rates stopped deteriorating. An hour’s sleep break increased the performance in the third and fourth sessions to normal levels.

Large companies have dedicated sleeping pods where employees can rest, and Greek design studio Studio NL has designed tables with a mattress and side cushion panel. “I was inspired by the complaints of my classmates who live far away from work,” said the author of the table concept, Athanasia Leivaditu, in an interview with A’Design Award & Competition. “This table can be used for a siesta or a few hours of sleep at night between deadlines.”

Cats at work.

Japanese internet company Ferry Corporation has allowed employees to bring cats to work. If a person doesn’t have a pet, they are offered $ 42 per month to get one.

When nine animals appeared in the office, employees noticed a decrease in stress levels and an improved atmosphere. Stiffness and shyness disappeared — workers began to communicate with each other more often. Cats roam freely throughout the day, they can chew on the cable, lie down on the table in the meeting room, or correct the fresh code by walking around the keyboard. However, the authorities are convinced that the positive effect of such a decision is still greater.

Refusal of optimization.

In 2012, Google launched the Aristotle project: researchers had to study hundreds of work teams and understand why some teams cope with tasks successfully, while others do not. Scientists considered different aspects: how often employees spend time outside the office, do they have common hobbies, do the team members have the same education, which is better — when everyone in the group is extroverted or introverted?

They have not been able to identify patterns and prove that some factors in the composition of the group matter. For example, in some successful teams, almost all members were friends outside of work, but in others, employees were complete outsiders to each other, although they also showed good results.

The researchers looked to other scientific papers and learned that the individual norms adopted in each team play a large role. Moreover, all participants should be satisfied with these rules. In 2008, a group of scientists from Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Union College conducted an experiment where 699 people were divided into groups: they each asked them to complete several tasks, such as finding as many uses for bricks as possible or building a shopping plan.

Teams that coped with one task, coped with the rest, and the unsuccessful ones failed in everything. Effective groups had two main features: during the experiment, all participants spoke for the same amount of time and had a high social sensitivity (they guessed what the other person was thinking by their facial expressions, tone of voice, and other non-verbal cues).

Scientists at Project Aristotle studied the teams on the same principle and found that this factor is indeed critical. However, they didn’t understand how to apply it: you couldn’t just get the team leaders to stop pushing others or motivate people to speak up.

A Google employee came to the rescue — middle manager Matt Sakaguchi, whose team showed poor results. He decided to figure out why. It turned out that the members of his group did not see a clear goal and did not feel their influence. To find out the reasons, he gathered all the participants and asked each of them to share something personal.

Sakaguchi started with himself and said he had stage IV cancer. Then another employee spoke about health problems. The third shared the details of the difficult breakup with the girl. Conversation in confidence during the discussion led to the creation of a new norm within the team: to notice when someone feels overwhelmed or upset.

“Project Aristotle taught the people at Google that no one wants to ‘work’ when they get to the office,” concluded a New York Times journalist who studied the experiment. — Nobody wants to leave a part of their personality at home. But in order to be fully present at work and feel psychologically safe, we need to know that we can share the things that scare us without any judgment. We must be able to talk about the sad, the hard, and the things that drive us crazy. We cannot focus on efficiency alone. When we start our morning with e-mails to our marketing colleagues and then move to the conference room, we want to know that these people really hear us. We want to know that work is more than just work. “