14 DAY TRIAL // Employers who want to boost the productivity of their employees should take some time to come up to date with the latest investigations in the field, because they tend to go up against established norms on how this can be achieved. A newly-published investigation makes no exception.
The research says that people who are happy at the workplace, and who experience positive moods at the workplace are those who tend to exhibit the most innovative thinking skills, be the most productive, and also the most likely to resolve thorny issues in creative ways.
In this sense, upbeat work environments are the way to increased productivity and better overall work efficiency, even if this may seem counterintuitive to employers at first.
Innovative thinking and creativity are not traits that you can exactly get on demand. They only come in highly subjective and personal circumstances for the people displaying them. What business owners should do is ensure that the people working for them experience such conditions as often as possible.
In the end, they will be the ones who will get the most out of it, the team behind the new investigation says. “Generally, positive mood has been found to enhance creative problem-solving and flexible yet careful thinking,” Ruby Nadler explains.
The University of Western Ontario graduate student conducted the work with colleague Rahel Rabi and professor Dr. John Paul Minda. Details of the work appear in the latest issue of the journal Psychological Science, PsychCentral reports.
“If you have a project where you want to think innovatively, or you have a problem to carefully consider, being in a positive mood can help you to do that,” Nadler explains.
In the experiments the group conducted, participants were divided into three groups, and made to listen a song and see a video that were either happy, sad, or neutral. They were then subjected to basic tests.
One of them revolved around learning how to recognize a pattern. Those in the group that saw and listened to happy, upbeat videos and songs were a lot more capable than the rest to learn the new task.
Nadler also explains why some many employees tend to watch a large number of funny videos while at work. “I think people are unconsciously trying to put themselves in a positive mood,” she says.
As such, employers should take this as a good sign when they see it happening among their employees, within limits of course.
The main point of the new study is that behavior which may appear time-wasting at first may in fact be the push people need to become more creative and innovative in the way they approach their daily jobs.