Tag: senses

anthropology · behavior · cognition · work

Inspire Creativity at Work With All 5 of Your Senses | Mashable

Beth Kelley

Work IS  a fully engrossing experience, so why not enhance all of those experiences?

You’ve probably heard of the debate about whether open offices or the oh-so-dreaded traditional cubicles are better in the workplace. All these discussions revolve around layout and arrangement, but did you know that ambience is equally (if not more) important for inspiring workplace creativity?

If only the interior designer had known that people working in white offices are more likely to complain of nausea and headaches, or that dim lighting jump starts creative freedom, your office might be a much happier place. In fact, the best offices engage all five senses — everything from colors and music to smells and tastes — to maximize your productivity and creativity.

Read the infographic below to decode why your office might be holding you back, and discover small things you can do to unleash your team’s creative powers in no time.

more via Inspire Creativity at Work With All 5 of Your Senses.

Me

On Vacation

Beth Kelley
The coconut tree
Coconut tree. Image via Wikipedia

Tomorrow I will be in Maui.

Tomorrow I will lie on the beach, belly exposed to the tropical sun, letting the rays warm me to my core and awaken me from a long winter doldrum semi-slumber, like a sunbear coming out of hibernation.

I will eat fresh pineapple, and coconut that actually tastes like coconut and not stale sweet water.

I will float on the top of the water in shallow pools like seaweed, wearing my mask and snorkel watching colorful flat fish peck at corral, hearing the tap, tap, tap noises they make with their fishy beaks.

I will hike to the top of recently retired volcanoes, through lush forests, up waterfalls, under strange birdcalls, to view the ocean from as far west as I’ve ever been.

I will feel the rough bark of trees and grain of rocks. I will smell flowers. I will hear the wind and warm afternoon rains.

I will not miss the cold, gray rain of today. I will not miss the hum of fluorescent lights, buzzy speakers, traffic, printers and computers. I will definitely not miss the sense of helplessness while stuck in traffic, fighting deadlines and work, and responding to correspondences.

But that is tomorrow. Today I am here, now, ready.

Note: *inspired by yesterday’s prompt from StoryPraxis. I didn’t end up posting this to their site because they tend to favor creative writing, but it’s a good writing exercise nonetheless.

Uncategorized

Good smells equal good acts

Beth Kelley

People are unconsciously fairer and more generous when they are in clean-smelling environments, according to a soon-to-be published study led by a Brigham Young University professor.

The research found a dramatic improvement in ethical behavior with just a few spritzes of citrus-scented Windex.

Katie Liljenquist, assistant professor of organizational leadership at BYU’s Marriott School of Management, is the lead author on the piece in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science. Co-authors are Chen-Bo Zhong of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and Adam Galinsky of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

The researchers see implications for workplaces, retail stores and other organizations that have relied on traditional surveillance and security measures to enforce rules.

“Companies often employ heavy-handed interventions to regulate conduct, but they can be costly or oppressive,” said Liljenquist, whose office smells quite average. “This is a very simple, unobtrusive way to promote ethical behavior.”Perhaps the findings could be applied at home, too, Liljenquist said with a smile. “Could be that getting our kids to clean up their rooms might help them clean up their acts, too.”

The study titled “The Smell of Virtue” was unusually simple and conclusive. Participants engaged in several tasks, the only difference being that some worked in unscented rooms, while others worked in rooms freshly spritzed with Windex.

Read more about the results and see a video clip of Katie Liljenquist talking about her study: byunews.byu.edu/smellofvirtue

music · psychology

Musicians hear better

Beth Kelley

Interesting study I read on Wired about a small, small study showing that musicians can pick out different sounds from a sea of noises, be it voices or flute toots or whatever, better than non-musically trained humans.

What got me really interested was the part about how people with learning disabilities have a hard time picking up voices out of a crowd in general, and what musical training might imply for helping this.

Like I said, small study, but really interesting to see where it might go.

Read on.

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