Increasing Brain Power
break up the tedium, perhaps with some brief
physical exercise thrown in. Scheduled breaks are effective but they too can face
the problem of repetition; e.g., workers work around anticipated breaks. In contrast,
unscheduled breaks often have a better effect as it disrupts worker expectations. Think
of it as a game of “Musical Chairs.”
Sometimes a simple change of scenery can help break up repetition. Instead
of meeting at the same place over and over again, try a different physical
venue to perk up worker interest.
Health
Regardless of how logical we believe we are, the brain is a physical organ
greatly influenced by human health. If we are sick or in distress (perhaps due
to the death of a loved one, a pending divorce, financial problems, etc.), it
is difficult to focus on our work. The manager should monitor worker
mental/physical health and take corrective action. For example, if someone
is sick, get them to a doctor so they can begin to mend and become productive
again. Further, the last thing you need is for someone to infect the rest of
your workers with a contagious disease (e.g., colds, flu, etc.).
The manager should also look for sleep deprivation in workers and counsel
them accordingly. A tired worker will not engage his brain properly. Further,
look for signs of drug abuse and depression that might have an adverse effect
on their work.
Minimize Distractions
One of the manager’s responsibilities is to monitor the surroundings of
the worker in order to minimize distractions and create a suitable environment
to concentrate on their work assignments. To assist in this regards, a Project
Management system is useful to record both direct and indirect activities. By
doing so, the manager can analyze the causes of worker distractions, plot
trends, and take appropriate action to minimize interference. For example,
if a manager detects excessive use of the telephone, he may devise a policy
to arrest the abuse. He may even go so far as to hold all outgoing calls.
The point is, the manager should constantly monitor and analyze
disruptions and distractions so that workers can concentrate on their
work effort.
Avoid Technology
A recent study was performed by Kings College in London for Hewlett
Packard, the purpose of which was to study the effect of technology
on worker performance. According to Dr. Glenn Wilson, the author of the study:
“Results showed clearly that technological distraction diminished IQ test performance
(mean scores dropped from 143.38 achieved under quiet conditions to 132.75 under
‘noisy’ conditions).”
“The impact of distraction was greater for males (145.50 down to 127) than for females
(141.25 down to 138.50). Putting that another way, males were superior in quiet conditions,
females were superior in the distraction condition. This is consistent with the idea that women
are better than men at ‘multi-tasking’.”
“Noisy conditions caused a striking increase in self-reported stress. Ratings on a 0-10 scale
of ‘stress experienced during the test’ increased from 2.75 to 5.5 for males and 4.75 to 6.75
for females. Note that in addition to the main effect of conditions of testing, women reported
higher stress levels than men overall.”
Basically, Wilson’s study is saying that excessive use of technology can
have an adverse effect on a person’s brain power. This is somewhat disturbing
as technology now permeates our society. As an example, while traveling through
the airports recently I observed the majority of my fellow travelers “tuned out” by
technology. The lion’s share of travelers today make active use of iPods, PDA’s,
cell phones, DVD & CD players, and laptop computers. It seems fewer and fewer
travelers read a book or engage in conversation anymore. In other words, most
travelers today are operating at a Level 2.
If Wilson is correct, and I believe he is, the manager should take notice of
this adverse effect of technology and discourage the use of such devices,
particularly at break time, and encourage more interpersonal contact
instead. Technology has its place, but I tend to believe we rely too heavily
on it. For example, using an automated calculator allows our brain to relax
while the machine performs the math. Too often I have seen people reach for a
calculator to perform a simple computation as opposed to working it out with
paper and pencil. They simply do not want to engage their brains. Further, I
have seen whole engineering departments come to a standstill when power
outages brought their computers down. Do they really lack the