Recovering from Information Overload – McKinsey Quarterly, Jan 2011
Many senior executives literally have two overlapping workdays: the one that is formally programmed in their diaries and the one “before, after, and in-between,” when they disjointedly attempt to grab spare moments with their laptops or smart phones, multitasking in a vain effort to keep pace with the information flowing toward them… multitasking is a terrible coping mechanism. A body of scientific evidence demonstrates fairly conclusively that multitasking makes human beings less productive, less creative, and less able to make good decisions. If we want to be effective leaders, we need to stop…
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Six Fundamental Shifts in the Way we Work – Harvard Business Review, Aug 2010
The conclusion is inescapable: our management practices and corporate institutions are fundamentally broken. Why haven’t companies yet figured out how to compete more successfully? 1. Value isn’t where it used to be. From stocks to knowledge, from push to pull… most executives are unable to make the leap from their current ways of seeing and doing.
Other snippets: Collaboration across industries trumps experience in one. (Crowdsourcing vs internal). The Dilbert Paradox: Management talk about talent but manage human resources, not assets. Passion is everything. Engaged people perform better than disinterested ones.
Three Ideas for 2010 Part II: DIY Work Hacking – Steve Rubel, Jan 2010
When a 12-year-old can gather information faster, process it more efficiently, reference more diverse professionals, and get volunteer guidance from better sources than you can at work, how can you pretend to be competitive?…Hack work, and embrace the others in your midst who care enough
Genies still stuck in bottles – Euan Semple, Oct 2009
On a daily basis I am reminded just how constrained people still working in corporate environments are compared to what is possible, and indeed easy and cheap, for me as a freelance
The secret of world class performance – The Personal MBA, Aug 2009
World class performers don’t work, they enjoy high performance
The 4 ways sound affects us – Julian Treasure, TED Talk, Jul 2009 (video at the top of this page)
We have a small amount of bandwidth for processing auditory input. We can’t listen to two conversations at once which is why working in a noisy office disrupts productivity… by 66%! You are one third as productive in open plan rooms than working in quiet spaces. Wearing headphones listening to birds singing can help…
Bad sound damages health. Sales can drop by 28% in retail stores with inappropriate soundscapes. People will leave shops faster or simply turn around at the door.
Open plan offices are making workers sick – Dr Vinesh Oommen, Queensland University, Jan 2009
In 90 per cent of the research, the outcome of working in an open-plan office was seen as negative, with open-plan offices causing high levels of stress, conflict, high blood pressure, and a high staff turnover.
The high level of noise causes employees to lose concentration, leading to low productivity, there are privacy issues because everyone can see what you are doing on the computer or hear what you are saying on the phone, and there is a feeling of insecurity.
The research found that the traditional design was better – small, private closed offices. The problem is that employers are always looking for ways to cut costs, and using open-plan designs can save 20 per cent on construction.
Coping with Speech Noise in the Modern Workplace – Earl Vickers, The Sound Guy Inc. Jan 2009
In the workplace, bad acoustical design can increase stress and reduce productivity. At any given time, a cubicle worker may be overhearing one or more phone conversations, water cooler chats, impromptu meetings, bull sessions, and even co-workers muttering at their computers. These distractions often drown out our own thoughts, turning us into involuntary eavesdroppers.
“Reviled by workers, demonized by designers, disowned by its very creator, it still claims the largest share of office furniture sales — $3 billion or so a year — and has outlived every ‘office of the future’ meant to replace it. It is the Fidel Castro of office furniture.” – J. Schlosser, “Cubicles: The great mistake,” Fortune Magazine, 2006 March
‘”Would it be smart to save $5,000 over the course of a year by putting a highly valued, expensive employee in open space, where that person won’t do the best possible job? We don’t think so… We believe strongly that the nature of a person’s work should dictate decisions about space — in other words, form should follow function. We’ve found that software developers do their best work in private, quiet spaces — hence the private offices in Redmond. But our sales and marketing people work in a mixture of private and open spaces…” Nick MacPhee, Microsoft - J. Vischer, “Will This Open Space Work?” Harvard Business Review, 1999 May-June
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