Last week I wrote about the value of touch in the workplace. Basically, I’m for handshakes, high fives, pats on the shoulder and even hugs in the workplace as one way of creating and maintaining good workplace relationships and there’s science to indicate the importance and value of touches.

Gaby from Germany wrote this comment on the post:

I once worked for a bank in Germany (well these are two locations in which you would not normally expect “personal affection” ;-)).

The team was large, about 40 people worked in one open space office. It surprised me a lot that every morning, whoever arrived, walked through the whole office and greeted everybody with a handshake and some personal words. It did not matter if the team members came, the bosses from higher up or anybody from another department. It was known everywhere that here you greet everybody personally.

For the first week, I found that very strange and a bit intimidating. Also, it cost a lot of time all in all. Yet afterwards, I really enjoyed it. It gave everybody the chance to get to know the colleagues a bit better, to hear what they are off to or to realize that somebody is not in or just returned from a trip or vacation. There was no need to e-mail weekly lists on who is out when. We just knew it.

Btw, when I moved on to another job, I sort of missed it.

I love it! And in fact, one simple tool we teach people in our speeches and workshops is to greet co-workers with a level-5 good morning. This means a good morning, where you:

• Make eye contact
• Add something specific to that person
• Touch the other person.

How do you greet your co-workers? How do you like to be greeted when you come in in the morning?

Like just about anyone else, my favorite café here in Copenhagen is tired of hearing about the financial crisis.

And this is how they’ve reacted:

That shows guts, initiative, playfulness and a commitment to fun. I love it!

It doesn’t stop at the posters and postcards (which I apparently inspired), the owner does many things to make this a happy workplace. Here’s one: As an employee on your birthday, you can either get a gift from the café or you can throw a party and the café will pay for it – provided you invite all your co-workers.

Which is just one more reason why I love this place. That and the pancakes :o) In fact, I’m writing this at The Laundromat Café and I also wrote large parts of my first book here.

The NYTimes has an excellent article that looks at what happens when people touch and concludes that:

Momentary touches — whether an exuberant high five, a warm hand on the shoulder, or a creepy touch to the arm — can communicate an even wider range of emotion than gestures or expressions, and sometimes do so more quickly and accurately than words.
…
The evidence that such messages can lead to clear, almost immediate changes in how people think and behave is accumulating fast. Students who received a supportive touch on the back or arm from a teacher were nearly twice as likely to volunteer in class as those who did not, studies have found. A sympathetic touch from a doctor leaves people with the impression that the visit lasted twice as long, compared with estimates from people who were untouched.
…
If a high five or an equivalent can in fact enhance performance, on the field or in the office, that may be because it reduces stress. A warm touch seems to set off the release of oxytocin, a hormone that helps create a sensation of trust, and to reduce levels of the stress hormone cortosil.

In the brain, prefrontal areas, which help regulate emotion, can relax, freeing them for another of their primary purposes: problem solving. In effect, the body interprets a supportive touch as “I’ll share the load.”

To me, this confirms what I’ve long believed, namely that there is also value in touch in the workplace. A hand shake, a high-five, a pat on the shoulder or even a hug – all of these are simple, effective ways to create better relationships at work – and thus better communication and more mutual respect.

One of the simplest (and most fun) exercises we do, is to teach people what we call a level-five good morning, i.e. greeting your co-workers by:

• Making eye contact
• Adding a little extra to your greeting (like “how was your week-end”)
• Touching the other person

In my mind, it’s a tragedy that in some workplaces all touching is avoided out of a fear of being misunderstood or inviting sexual harassment lawsuits. Yes, sexual harassment is a problem in some workplaces, but eliminating all physical contact is not a solution – it may even be part of the problem.

Let me be clear: I’m not saying you can turn a toxic workplace into a happy one by having people touch more :o) But I do believe that physical contact is a natural way of how we communicate and if you eliminate it from a workplace it will be much harder to create a happy workplace.

Many companies get it. Here’s a fun story from a Southwest Airlines employee who for the first time found himself in “hugging distance” of the company’s president Colleen Barrett.

Your take

What’s your take on touching in the workplace? What’s the culture like where you work? Hand shakes or hugs or hands-off? Write a comment, I’d love to hear your take.

There are good clients and then there are GREAT clients. And LEGO definitely falls in the latter category.

I gave a presentation to 200 people at their Corporate Center today on better meetings, which they really liked.

And afterwards they had a present for me. Here I am with the director:

Yes, that’s the Star Wars Death Star kit. It has 3,800 parts shows 14 scenes from the movies and contains 21 minifigs.

Wooo-hoooooo :o)

We had a fantastic time with our conference on happiness at work last year. You can read more about it here and you can see Srikumar S. Rao’s presentation here.

This year’s event promises to be even better. We have speakers from companies like IKEA, ISS and Zappos. We have Lars Kolind, Alfred Josefsen and Fred Gratzon (the self-proclaimed laziest man in North America) sharing their insights.

Unfortunately, unless you speak Danish you will miss out on about 2/3 of the day :o( Here’s a little more info about the day – for our Danish readership:

Kom til konference om arbejdsglæde d. 20. maj 2010

Vi holder konference om arbejdsglæde igen i år – det bliver den 20. maj i København og vi glæder os helt vildt. Sidste års konference var et kæmpe hit og 2010-udgaven bliver endnu bedre :o)

Du får:

• Vi har samlet 10 af Danmarks og verdens førende tænkere og praktikere inden for arbejdsglæde, bl.a. Lars Kolind, Alfred Josefsen og FCKs talentchef Sune Smith-Nielsen. Jens Gaardbo er konferencier.
• Inspiration og ideer fra virksomheder som IKEA, ISS, Irma, zappos.com, FCK og mange andre.
• Et spændende konferenceformat i Danmark der giver dig flere, kortere og mere målrettede indlæg.
• Masser af praktiske, brugbare redskaber til at gøre din arbejdsplads gladere.

Læs meget mere om konferencen og tilmeld dig her.

My good buddy Robert Biswas-Diener, AKA the Indiana Jones of Positive Psychology, tells this story in an article on cnn.com, that fits in perfectly with my post from yesterday about the rules of productivity of knowledge workers:

Mark had only a handful of days to write applications for internships, turn in final papers and secure letters of recommendation and had fallen into a deep funk. Not only was there no progress, but he had frittered away hours in meaningless pastimes like downloading music and walking in the park.

Mark uttered the all-too-familiar phrase, “I am such a procrastinator!”

My instincts told me that it was not a lifetime of chronic procrastination that led Mark to his current situation. On a hunch, I asked him a crucial question, “When you get around to completing your work — and we both know that you eventually will — how will the quality be?”

My client seemed taken aback by the question. He answered with confidence, a single word: “Superior!”

I realized, in that moment, that there may be a subtle but important difference between the “back burner” mentality I saw in my client and the traditional way a procrastinator works.

What Mark presented was something qualitatively different: a clear sense of deadlines, confidence that the work would be complete on time, certainty that the work would be of superior quality and the ability to subconsciously process important ideas while doing other — often recreational — activities.

I realized I was looking at a strength, one I called “incubator.” When I shared this term with Mark, he felt as if the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders.

Robert goes on to explain the key differences between procrastinators and incubators based on a study he did of 184 students. There’s even a test you can take to figure out if you’re an incubator or a regular old procrastinator.

Also, check out Robert’s web site for a lot more great stuff on positive psychology and using your strengths.

Go read the whole article – it rocks!

Related posts:

• Top 5 new rules of productivity for knowledge workers.
• How to procrastinate effectively.
• The Seven-Day Weekend.