Ever wish you could have a day with no interruptions? Or even an hour? Intel has been running an experiment whereby Tuesday mornings are Quiet Time. So far, so good. People love it, according to Nathan Zeldes:
Many of the engineers are happy about the newfound thinking time, and are protecting it by pushing back on interrupters during the Tuesday AM slot. Not unexpectedly there are also some who complain that this isolation prevents them from getting answers to urgent questions during that morning… we are assuming the benefit outweighs this cost, and are waiting for the mid- and post-survey to tell us whether this is correct.
Next up for the engineers, Zero Email Friday, a bit of hyperbole it make the point:
In our new pilot, we encourage the members of an organic group to focus each Friday on direct conversation – face to face or by telephone – for interpersonal communication within the group...While this may seem a small thing, experiments done in other companies showed a great impact once people started exploring communication with the human voice.
Imagine the possibilities if we actually starting talking to one another again. Hello.
