Have you heard of the Hawthorne Effect? It’s based on a study done at the Hawthorne Works factory in the 1920s and 1930s, where researchers tried making changes to workers’ environments to try and increase productivity. Things like making lights brighter or dimmer, making it hotter or colder, etc. What they found was there was improved productivity regardless of the changes made. In other words, people improve their productivity when they know it’s being more intentionally monitored and measured.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

Something I saw a lot of in 2023 was certain organizational leaders deciding to lessen the work-from-home posture that had grown during COVID and press for people to come back to the office. This has been interesting to watch (from a business case perspective) because some of these leaders are now making dubious, vague claims on how the camaraderie, synergy, energy, etc., is all better than ever now that their employees are all in the office together again. But I can’t help but wonder how much of this, in the short term, is just Hawthorne Effect? Either because people are performing because they fear for their jobs, or (as the experiments showed), ANY change results in a short term productivity boost.

In an ever-growing effort to use data to squeeze ever more efficiency out of, well, everything, it seems like an obvious case of short-term thinking. “The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long.” Well, I guess if you have a drawer full of more candles, then it’s hard to see the problem with that approach.