The Level Up Letter - Vol. 20 - WE'RE WATCHING YOU!

The Hawthorne Effect, the Dual Slit Experiment and how we behave while being watched

Author

Better Board Meeting
May 03, 2024

THE LEVEL UP LETTER

Hi All!
Here is your weekly Level Up Letter.
This week we’re diving into the way we behave when someone’s watching and how you can use it to your advantage. We hope you enjoy and please forward along if your heart desires. 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

THE OBSERVER EFFECT (The Dual Split Experiment)

Before we get into human behavior, let’s take a look at how particles behave while being watched. The Dual Split Experiment is one of physics's great unexplained mysteries.

Imagine you have a wall with two slits in it. When you shine a light on it, the waves of light will pass through and bounce off each other. This creates an interruption pattern on the back wall. You’ll get bands of light. (as in Example A)

Now imagine you shoot a beam of single particles through those slits. Like little electron bullets going one by one through the slits. You’d expect a result like Example B because particles aren’t waves. In reality, you get another interference pattern like Example C.

UNLESS you observe which slit each particle goes through.

The particles will map out as you’d expect in Example B ONLY IF someone is watching them.

Just like us humans, particles behave differently if someone is observing them.

THE HAWTHORNE EFFECT

In 1932, GM was looking to boost worker productivity. They hired a team to help research and conduct experiments with working conditions.

One of their first ideas was to increase the amount of light in the factory so workers would be more alert. They ran an experiment with bright and dim lighting for workers.

They turned the lights up and BAM, Increase in productivity! No surprise there.

To be thorough, they turned the lights down and….what happened? Productivity still went up!! - WTF???

How can productivity be increasing across both experiments? It remained a mystery for about 20 years until a man named John French came up with an idea.

The productivity change had nothing to do with the lights and everything to do with the fact that the workers KNEW they were being observed. The Hawthorne Effect was born.

It makes sense in retrospect. How do you act when you know a camera is on you? Do you speed up when you know there’s a radar gun ahead? We all have different patterns of behavior depending on who we’re with or who we know is watching us.

CO-WORKING HOURS

So how do we use this to our advantage? One of our favorite ways is to have co-working hours.

  • Grab an accountabilibuddy

  • Meet at a co-working space or a coffee shop

  • Define what you’re each going to get done while you’re there

  • Do the work and hold each other to it.

We can guarantee that if you’re both willing to hold each other accountable, you’ll be able to get way more done than you think. Give it a test and let us know how it goes.

Or you could always fly to Japan and go to an anti-procrastination cafe…..

READY TO LEVEL UP?

Looking to Level Up your life or your business? Find out more about how we can help through our Coaching, Mastermind Groups or Consulting services.