Five Ideas to Watch

Inc., December, 2004 by Jess McCuan

1. An Apprehensive Employee Is a Good Employee

Researchers at Rice University have found that being in a bad mood may actually spur creativity. Professors Jennifer George and Jing Zhou collected data from 67 employees at a helicopter manufacturer, and they found that when workers were happy, excited, or enthusiastic, they were sometimes overly confident about the work they had done. In contrast, people who felt uneasy, distressed, or mildly fearful were critical of their own performance and thus more motivated to come up with new ideas. "If you're working on a creative task, you have to decide for yourself when you've done enough," says George. "People often use their mood as input into those kinds of judgments."

2. Serving a Captive Audience

Headphones are...

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