Have you ever envisioned yourself working your dream job with the greatest co-workers, but the work environment just isn’t what you wanted it to be?  Chances are you’ve experienced some difficulties either getting everything done on time or with the workplace culture.  Look no further, because this blog includes the information you’ll need to get started on improving the overall efficiency of your organization as well as how to transform workplace culture for the better.

In this blog, we will be discussing a few ways to utilize the tools of behavior design to increase efficiency in the workplace.  Tackling and embracing difference boundaries, increasing positive engagement, and breaking down the barriers of modern workplace colonialism will make a huge impact on how people work together in a much better environment!

Embracing Difference Boundaries

Difference boundaries are characteristics that make us unique from one other. A few great examples of difference boundaries are age, nationality, gender, and countless other personal variations that make us distinct from each other.  

While it seems to be a common belief that those who are more similar will work better together, we would like to introduce a new concept.  Let’s say that within a company, a group of people who are between ages 25-35 and male choose to work together on projects because they feel that they have the most in common.  It should be fairly obvious right away that some issues could certainly arise between this group.  We can clearly see that there are two major demographics that are being left out of the work of this group of men: older employees and women.  

Both of these neglected cohorts of individuals would bring extraordinarily different ideas to the table.  The older employees are likely to have much more knowledge and wisdom in the field of work than the young men, and women would have unparalleled experiences dealing with and overcoming gender biases.  It doesn’t even matter how well the young men’s work is while working in their exclusive cohort, because by bridging the difference boundaries in the company, the amount of opportunity to improve their work and products is astronomical.  

While this gives us a very clear cut example of difference boundaries in the workplace, there are innumerable other ways that individuals can work together to embrace each other’s differences and use them to benefit one another.  

You may notice that difference boundaries have a direct correlation to diversity in the workplace, and this list of The Top 10 Benefits of Diversity in the Workplace is a great way to see just how important diversity is.  Overcoming and embracing the differences between individuals in an organization or corporation is vital to not only increase efficiency but also overall happiness of workers.

Increasing Positive Engagement

At the Peace Innovation Lab and Institute, one of our largest areas of focus is on what we can do to bring about positive changes to the people around us.  Dr. BJ Fogg, a behavior scientist at Stanford University and one of the founders of the Peace Innovation Lab, emphasizes the importance of using positive behaviors as ways to lead us to higher quality lives.  

In his newest book, Tiny Habits, Fogg gives readers insights into the mindset of forming small habits that will allow us to live the life that we want to live, rather than the life that we feel we have to live.  A group of current interns working with the Peace Innovation Institute has been implementing small, quick behaviors that highlight positivity and engagement in their meetings, and the immediate impact on the group’s mentality is astonishing.  

In these uncertain and terrifying times of a global pandemic along with civil unrest, it is easy to get caught up in fear and negative emotions.  Something so small as giving someone a thumbs up during a Zoom meeting, sending a motivational quote to the organization’s group message, or even just checking in on one another can have massive significance in individuals’ current states of mind.

Introducing these episodes of quick, small-scale behaviors into the workplace culture has phenomenal effects on everyone that takes part in them.  As one of the interns working with the Peace Innovation Lab and Institute during these times, I can attest that this method of positive engagement is highly effective.  Every day of the work week we have a meeting with the organization and utilize these small behaviors as a way to encourage and energize each other, and there has never been a day where anyone leaves the meeting without a smile on their face.

Positive interactions work.  As is noted by Mark Nelson, co-director of the Peace Innovation Institute, at first these things may seem frivolous and pointless, but anyone who picks up these habits will quickly see the enormous benefits that they bring to the workplace and individuals’ attitudes.

Breaking Down the Barriers of Colonialism

You may not have previously thought about the idea of colonialism in the context of the workplace, so here is a great way to become familiar with it.

Nobody wants to have a job where some head figure or boss tells you what to do every day, right?  As soon as you walk into an office building, you know exactly who the leader is right away because they have the biggest, or only, office with more space to work than anyone else in the company.  In a hierarchical, class-based system where it’s clear who is in charge of everybody else, typically the only ones who are truly happy are those at the top.  

This is colonialism: having a select few members of a society or organization who hold the majority of power and authority over the rest of the people.  This article gives some eye-opening facts about the negative impact of colonialism in the workplace and how it directly impacts the mental health of employees and causes companies to lose money in the long run.  

When we exclude the idea of colonialism from the workplace, it allows individuals to be their own boss; they can work on the things that they are passionate about which in return brings in higher quality performance over time.  From there we can start to imagine a sort of snowball of positive effects: working on your passions leads to higher quality work, which then leads to better products and more income in the end.  

This idea of breaking down the barriers of colonialism is not implying that we should work to get rid of all of the bosses in the world, that is not a conceivable outcome.  Instead, we want people to see the potential in creating a workplace culture that supports the unique ideas that individuals bring to the table and to foster those ideas in a way that gives advantages to both the individual and the company in a mutually beneficial way.

Reducing the stresses caused by colonialism would greatly increase time efficiency with production and performance.  If you want to boost your company’s overall efficiency, improve the mental health of employees and decrease the profit that is lost from these two areas of concern, then working towards the transformation of workplace colonialism is a fantastic starting point.  

Closing Remarks

The combination of embracing difference boundaries, increasing positive engagement, and moving away from the idea of colonialism is an excellent way to start making the workplace a more efficient and desirable place to be.  Through the resources available at the Peace Innovation Lab and Institute you can begin to make the positive changes in yourself and others that will allow you to be your best version of yourself.

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