Using Environmental Priming to Boost Productivity

In 1996, John Bargh, Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale University, did an experiment to see if he could influence behavior with a simple activity.  He and his team divided the participants in the study into three groups.  The first group were placed in the “Rude Condition”.  They had to unscramble a list of rude words like bold, aggressive, disturb.  The second group was placed in the “Polite Condition” and were given a series of polite words to unscramble such as patient, respect and respectful.  And the last group were in the “Neutral Condition”.  They were given words to unscramble that were neither polite nor rude.  When a participant in any of the three groups was done unscrambling the assigned words, they were instructed to walk down the hallway and tell the researcher they were finished. 

Recently, a high-powered attorney — who specializes in Employment Law, Non-Compete Defense, Trade Secrets and Partnership Breakups – shared a story about his recent attempt to book a room at a Mandarin Oriental Hotel.  One can guess that the story he shared was not a positive one.  He didn’t rave about their customer service.  He didn’t gush about how his interaction with this luxury hotel brand left him feeling warm and fuzzy.  If they had delivered on their brand promise, I doubt he would have posted anything at all. 

In sports, coaches are constantly telling athletes that they must embrace a winning mindset.  But this phrase is also heard in conference rooms and boardrooms throughout corporate America.  Leaders exhort their rainmakers, top performers and powerhouse salespeople to embrace a “winning mindset.”  It’s a phrase used in a cross-section of industries from education and technology to space exploration and scientific breakthroughs.  A winning mindset is helpful in any industry or field where people want to achieve excellence and continuous improvement.  But what is a winning mindset anyway?

Businesses are constantly trying to tackle big goals.  These are goals that they may be struggling to achieve.  Focus is often placed on the goal and how it was tackled in the past, but that is not always helpful.  In fact, that may very well be the problem.  Instead of focusing on the outcome, researchers have found that it’s much more effective to focus on actions most connected to achieving that goal and most likely to predict future performance.  Just supercharge the actions on the front end most likely to achieve the ultimate goal. 

Attracting and retaining labor is difficult.  In a tight labor market, it’s even more challenging.  And to hire top talent who can really transform a company, HR must offer something more.  It’s not enough to just do the basics like salary and typical benefits.  The most qualified candidates will interview the companies that are recruiting as much as the company is interviewing the candidates.  Candidates want to see that the employer will invest in developing the employee as much as the employee will invest in growing the company.  What does that look like?  This includes offering such perks as:

A 2023 Survey by Pew Research found that over 60% of current employees said they are or will start seeking new jobs within the next six months. Of those respondents, just 31% said they currently did meaningful work.  And, of those who plan to look for work, 72% said that they lack meaningful and satisfying work. 

It might seem obvious that staff who do work that is meaningful or gives a sense of purpose are more likely to stay in their current job.  So, it makes sense that an employer who wants to keep employees should simply assign work that is meaningful and gives employees a sense of purpose.  But that isn’t as simple as it sounds.

Learning is Growing; Growth Quashes Turnover

A recent study found that 94% of U.S. employees would stay at a company longer if the company invested in helping them learn.  Employees who are learning, growing and feel challenged at work stay in their current workplaces longer… even when offered better positions, pay and benefits.  That’s because, for employees, agility fuels career growth and relevance. And what is agility if not constant learning?  Employees therefore value working at companies that are committed to ensuring everyone has the tools, career paths, and the skills to succeed.  Learning and growth opportunities are so important to U.S. employees because they see Learning and Development (L&D) as a way to:

Evaluations vs Stay Interviews

Here is the age-old question that business management experts have been pondering since the Industrial Revolution:  If a company puts profits first no matter what it does to employees, can it thrive if there is constant turnover?  On the other hand, if a company puts people first, will it be as profitable?  For a century, these questions were positioned like a tug of war of opposing forces.  Labor vs. Management. 

Today, smart business owners and managers know that employees need to feel valued (and be valued) in order to keep turnover low.  People are the most important resource of any business.  But that same leadership also knows that they must keep productivity and efficiency high in order to be profitable.  The struggle then is to figure out what to prioritize:  people or profits? 

At the end of 2022, LinkedIn did a survey that found that almost 70% of Gen Z and Millennial Americans said they planned to leave their jobs in 2023.  These results were reconfirmed by another survey conducted in February 2023 by CBS.  That study found that 75% of respondents planned to look for a new job over the next 12 months, up from 65% in 2022.  So, while some pundits have said that the so-called ‘Big Quit’ is tapering, that’s not what actual employees are saying.  There are still many workers wanting to change jobs, if they haven’t done so already. 

The US is in a tight labor market.  Unemployment has hovered between 3% and 5% since 2016 (setting aside the two years of Covid) and most economists now agree that it is not expected to rise any time soon.  It’s currently at 3.6% even after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates 11 times (for a total of 6%) in the last 18 months, which should have reduced demand for workers.  It hasn’t.