Somewhere along the line of our evolution, we were trained to fit a schedule. There were predators around our caveman ancestors, they couldn’t afford the risk of sleeping eight hours at a time. But, since spears and sharp rocks were replaced by guns and tanks we no longer need worry about predators, thus, we adopted the 8 hour-a-day sleep cycle. But in no way is this our nature.
As civilization advances, we become increasingly reliant on schedules: we sleep 8 hours-a-day, we work eight hours-a-day, we schedule meals. But as we plan more, we become less efficient. If we resorted to our innate flexibility, than maybe we would become more efficient.
The Ted talk video “The science of Motivation” explains how companies experiment with different work-models with surprising increases in productivity. The most efficient method of efficiency is flexibility. Workers are allowed to work at whatever schedule they please as long as they get the work done: they longer had to come into work at regular hours or attend meetings. This surprisingly expanded creativity and increase productivity. Another model is for workers to take 20% of their work time to pursue a hobby then present what they have created. Google uses this model resulting in ½ of their new products from this 20% time gap. Outside of the box thinking, flexibility and freedom are natural human instincts for creation and should be applied to business model to become more efficient. No longer should our society be placed under limitations of 9-5.
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html
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