MARK BEAN

markbean

Think your colleagues are wasting time when they chat together? Think again. There’s an interesting article in Forbes magazine about new research from MIT Professor Alex (Sandy) Pentland’s group at the MIT Media Lab. The researchers studied interactions among call center employees at a Bank of America site — and discovered some quantifiable benefits to conversations with coworkers. Noted Forbes: “Individuals who talked to more coworkers were getting through calls faster, felt less stressed and had the same approval ratings as their peers. Informally talking out problems and solutions, it seemed, produced better results than following the employee handbook or obeying managers’ e-mailed instructions.

The Surprising Benefits of Office Chitchat - Improvisations - MIT Sloan Management Review

Source: sloanreview.mit.edu