| Humor at Work |
ISSUE 634 - June 8, 2016 |
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Nudging Your Way to Success |
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If you want to change a behavior in your fellow employees or customers try nudging them, metaphorically speaking that is (unless you want some strange looks). Behavioral scientists claim that nudging people is the most effective way to get anyone to change a behavior because nudges are small and require very little commitment. And the most effective
nudging, behavioral scientists say, happens not by giving people reams of informative data, but through "normative influence" - what's socially acceptable and how their behavior compares to the people closest to them.
In a 2013 study, for example, Opower found the most effective way to lower energy consumption was to employ the theory of nudging by using a smiley face measurement tool that let consumers know how well they were conserving energy compared to their neighbors.
Whether you are trying to change your own behavior or influence the behaviors of people around you, start with small nudges, share information about how other people are behaving, and measure progress in fun, simple ways.
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Mike's Fun at Work Tip |
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One of my clients held a contest for the best team yoga pose photo. You could try this team by team with team photos, get your entire company together for a group yoga-posing photo, or create a "yoga-pose-off" challenge and encourage individuals to submit their best "yoga pose-off" photo and award prizes for the best yoga photos (or as I call them,"yogotos").
Speaking of yoga...more and more organizations, including military organizations and police departments, are offering yoga training because they are seeing the huge stress-relieving benefits of yoga. One study from Standford University found that when people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder did just one week of yoga, it reduced all measures of PTS. Another study showed that just 15 minutes of chair yoga produced significant results in terms of lower stress levels and
a substantial drop in the stress hormone cortisol.
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Quote of the Week |
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"If you want to thrive and remain competitive in a workplace that is changing radically and relentlessly, you need the fluidity and flexibility of humor." C.W. Metcalf
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It's a Wacky World |
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A Japan-bound flight had to make an emergency return to Hawaii because a passenger refused to sit properly in his seat - insisting on his right to do yoga and meditate. He was so insistent on his right to peacefully mediate that he tried headbutting and biting the marines who eventually subdued him. (He really needed to do yoga before he got on the plane.)
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mike@mikekerr.com
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