The Water Cooler Syndrome and the Bottom Line

One of the things that I like about working is the opportunity to think about what is happening and what should be happening in the work environment.

Unfortunately thinking about things and then being able to DO anything with the thoughts that you have are two different things.

In work places in which there is a 'water cooler' or "coffee clutch" or "smokers corner" culture, you have the beginnings of what is referred to in the literature as a 'community of interest'.
I have spoken about these before in these pages and what I want to do today is to mention some of the lack of progress that can be made with them in the current 'do more with less' work environments.

What I am finding is that there are numerous colleagues who are really enthused when you approach them about thinking through issues and developing practical suggestions for change. They stay focused and continue to be enthusiastic on each occasion when you approach them.
However their enthusiasm seems to wane when it comes to DOING anything beyond having a chat about things and actually undertaking some of the hard work that is related to progressing an idea into a work in progress.

The rationale for their lack of activity is a many faceted as there are possibilities in the work place. Most of them however seem to centre around the reality that there is so much work and so little time to do it in that there is no space and time left for the creative processes much less the accompanying work that is required to get an idea from the idea stage into a productive and implementable reality.

I wonder if any has done a cost benefit analysis on the diminution of productivity that arises from getting people to be so 'productive' in doing things that they have no time left for thinking about what it is that they are doing and how they are doing it?

Perhaps some organisations would be better placed if they actually encouraged people to think before they do - you never know they may actually see some improvements to their bottom line by doing so.