Page 250 - The Power to Change Anything

Change the Environment 239

preparation of the evening meal was such a significant under-
taking that everyone, of necessity, ate at the same time and in
the same place. The microwave changed all that by making it
easy to prepare single portions for whomever whenever.
Suddenly there was no need to prepare one big meal at one
time.
Dining tables disappeared, and so did a regular ritual that
brought people into face-to-face communication. Nowadays
teenagers are as likely to have dinner alone or with their pals
as they are to eat with their parents. Couple this trend with the
creation of massive homes and separate TV rooms, and you’ll
see how space (the final frontier) has contributed to the aver-
age parent’s loss of influence.
Within corporations, where friendships are less important
than collaboration, propinquity also plays an important role in
daily effectiveness. Distance keeps people from routinely
interacting, and as we’ve suggested, it often leads to animosity
and loss of influence. But it also leads to a loss of informal
contact.
Most people don’t lament this loss, but they should. When
people casually bump into each other at work, they ask ques-
tions, share ideas, and surprisingly often come up with solutions
to problems. The storied social scientist Bill Ouchi found that
one practice at Hewlett-Packard greatly increased informal
contact and collaboration. HP leaders demanded that employ-
ees keep, of all things, a messy desk. The goal wasn’t to attract
roaches; it was to attract humans. By leaving work visible and
accessible, they found that it was much more likely that others
wandering by would see, take an interest, and get involved in
the work of a colleague.
As people bump into one another, take in the contents of
a messy desk, and share ideas, they’re also much more likely to
work together on a formal project. Employees extend what
starts out as a casual conversation into a shared task. In an area
where multiple heads are required to solve most problems, this