I came across an interesting TedTalk today that I wanted to share. It is called "Why work doesn't happen at work," by Jason Fried. Fried brings up the issue of distraction within office environments. He talks about how relatively few people will say they get most of their work done in the office. Instead, they will name countless other places such as: the porch, a coffee house, a library, a train, a bus, etc. where they are most productive. Fried claims that this is due to the endless distractions at the office. He argues that while many people will say that there are more distractions are home, that those are voluntary distractions. Unlike the involuntary distractions, such as people tapping your shoulder or meetings, at the office. He explains how productive work, much like sleep, happens in phases and just as one cannot sleep well with continuous interruptions, people cannot work well with continuous interruptions. People need long periods of uninterrupted time in order to accomplish good work. He claims that managers and meetings are the problem, that managers are constantly interrupting and calling meetings that are "toxic and poisonous" to productivity. One example he gave was that managers think they are taking up one hour of time in a one hour meeting, however, really a one hour meeting with 10 people would be taking up 10 hours of productive work.
After he bashes on managers and office habits a bit, he gives three suggestions for how to improve the office environment in order to limit distractions. The first is to establish specific days, such as "no talk thursdays," in which the office will be silent, thus allowing long periods of silence and productivity. Second, he suggests switching from active communication to passive communication such as email or instant message. Lastly, he says "cancel that next meeting, just don't have it." All in all he suggests to "lay off a little bit," and give people more time to get some work done.
While I'm not sure if I agree completely with everything he said, because some of his suggestions seem a little too intense, I do see the underlying message. As a manager, it is important to recognize whether you are fostering a productive office environment or not. Limit distractions and allow for periods of uninterrupted time for your employees to accomplish great work!
Hi Caroline- This ted talk was super awesome, thank you for sharing it! I drove my mom to work this morning because her car is in the shop and I asked her what she had on tap for the day. She said she had to work on a calendar she publishes for the community from her company and how she needs a solid 8 hours from start to finish. Just as I was wishing her luck, she said she was going to download the new layout and email it to herself so she could do it all at home because she had several meetings and constant interruptions. This TedTalk was so on point and I just emailed her the link. Sadly, she really has no power over the meetings and constant interruptions from residents so she won't be able to control that but I think one silent afternoon a week is something she could/should insist on. Thanks again for the great find!
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, passive communications (i.e., e-mail) can be a major distraction. I often got most of my work done at the end of the business day, when most of my employees were on their way home, because as a senior manager I spent most of my days in meetings. Meetings can be a huge time suck, but at the same time, face to face communication is very powerful. There's a fair amount of literature on effective meetings. THis could be a topic to talk about in this class.
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