13 November 2008

News Flash: Workplace Socializing Is Productive

An MIT researcher talks about the usefulness of water cooler chatter

A GMJ Q&A with Alex Pentland, Ph.D., Toshiba Professor of Media, Arts, and Sciences at MIT and author of Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World
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Contrary to their every instinct, managers should actually encourage their workers to chit-chat, to gather around the water cooler -- even to gossip. An MIT researcher reveals why these guilty pleasures are, in fact, good for a company's productivity.
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Reader Comments
Valerie Heine Posted On 11/13/2008 4:39:05 PM

It goes back to engagement...Do you have a best friend at work?

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Kelly Riggs Posted On 11/14/2008 10:36:01 AM

Talk about full-circle....time and motion studies all over again. If business believes that workers will operate at their highest performance potential for eight full hours every day without human contact, social interaction, or the occasional break to unwind and refocus, they haven't been paying attention for the past....oh...200 years. How many times has this ground been plowed? Results are the measuring stick - not the number of hours worked.

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Selamawit Truneh Posted On 11/19/2008 12:09:11 AM

Informal gathering is the best source of information and the best forum to unleash frustrations. Give yourself and your peers time for a coffee chat, or informal lunch chat and see the difference. You will wonder how much of the hidden talent is revealed.

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Don Ringelestein Posted On 12/8/2008 2:16:04 PM

Fascinating comments about time and motion studies. The foundational elements of Taylorism would appear to be used, in this study, to arrive at a conclusion seemingly opposed to Taylor's quest for complete rationality in the workplace. One wonders if this is a part of the non-rational "fad" or a defining charateristic of the 21st-century workplace?

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See also
The Business Value of Niceness
The Tenth Element of Great Managing
Engineering a Friendly Workplace at DaimlerChrysler
What Are Workplace Buddies Worth?
The Collective Advantage

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