What I’ve learned since moving to D.C. (some of which should be obvious): 0058

2851.  The better we feel about workplace relationships, the more effective we will be.  A study of over 350 employees in 60 business units at a financial services company found that the greatest predictor of a team’s achievement was how the members felt about one another;

2852.  Studies show that the more team members are encouraged to socialize and interact face-to-face, the more engaged they feel, the more energy they have, and the longer they can stay focused on a task;

2853.  To make a difference to work performance and job satisfaction, social contact need not always be deep to be effective.  Organizational psychologists have found that even brief encounters can form “high-quality connections,” which fuel openness, energy, and authenticity among coworkers, and in turn lead to a whole host of measurable, tangible gains in performance;

2854.  Any point of contact with another person can potentially be a high-quality connection.  One conversation, one e-mail exchange, one moment of connecting in a meeting can infuse both participants with a greater sense of vitality, giving them a bounce in their steps and a greater capacity to act;

2855.  A team of British researchers decided to follow a group of employees who worked for two different supervisors on alternate days – one they had good rapport with, and one they didn’t.  On the days the dreaded boss worked, their average blood pressure shot up;

2856.  A 15-year study found that employees who had a difficult relationship with their boss were 30 percent more likely to suffer from coronary heart disease;

2857.  Studies have found that the strength of the bond between manager and employee is the prime predictor of both daily productivity and the length of time people stay at their jobs;

2858.  Gallup, which has spent decades studying the practices of the world’s leading organizations, estimates that U.S. companies lose $360 billion each year due to lost productivity from employees who have poor relationships with their supervisor;

2859.  When Gallup asked ten million employees around the world if they could agree or disagree with the following statement: “My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person,” those who agreed were found to be more productive, contributed to more profits, and were significantly more likely to stay with their company long-term;

2860.  Neuroscience has revealed that when we make eye contact with someone, it actually sends a signal to the brain that triggers empathy and rapport;

2861.  An important part of maintaining a social bond is being there, both physically and emotionally, when someone is in need;

2862.  How we support people during good times, more than bad times, affects the quality of a relationship;

2863.  Sharing upbeat news with someone is called “capitalization,” and it helps multiply the benefits of the positive event as well as strengthens the bond between the two people involved.  They key to gaining these benefits is how you respond to someone’s good news;

2864.  Shelly Gable, a leading psychologist at the University of California, has found that there are four different types of responses we can give to someone’s good news, and only one of them contributes positively to the relationship.  The winning response is both active and constructive; it offers enthusiastic support, as well as specific comments and follow-up questions (That’s wonderful!  I’m glad your boss noticed how hard you’ve been working.  When does your promotion go into effect?”);

2865.  Passive responses to good news (“That’s nice.”) can be just as harmful to the relationship as blatantly negative ones (“You got the promotion?  I’m surprised they didn’t give it to Sally, she seems more suited to the job.”);

2866.  The most destructive response to good news is ignoring the news entirely (“Have you seen my keys?”);

2867.  Gable’s studies have shown that active-constructive responding enhances relationship commitment and satisfaction, and fuels the degree to which people feel understood, validated, and cared for during a discussion;

2868.  Building strong social capital does not require that all colleagues become best friends or even that everyone like one another all the time.  What does matter is that there be mutual respect and authenticity.  Coercing employees into awkward icebreakers or forced bonding activities, like making everyone at a meeting share something about their private lives, only breeds disconnection and mistrust.  Better that these moments happen organically – which they will if the environment is right.  The best leaders give their employees the space and time to let moments of social connection develop on their own.  So the more physical spaces available to publicly commune, the better;

2869.  Even the classically boring meeting can be designed in a way to foster high-quality connections.  Meeting practices that encourage member contribution and active listening foster group commitment;

2870.  We can promote social connection at work just by using language that implies a common purpose and interdependence;

2871.  Forging a connection requires active listening – giving someone your full attention and also allowing them to have their say.  Many people listen as if waiting for an opportunity to make their own point.  Instead, focus on the speaker and their opinion, and then ask interested questions to learn more;

2872.  Studies have shown that gratitude sparks an upward spiral of relationship growth where each individual feels motivated to strengthen the bond;

2873.  Mirror neurons are specialized brain cells that can actually sense and then mimic the feelings, actions, and physical sensations of another person.  A person is pricked by a needle.  The neurons in the pain center of his or her brain will immediately light up, which should come as no surprise.  But what is a surprise is that when that same person sees someone else receive a needle prick, this same set of neurons lights up, just as though he himself had been pricked;

2874.  Mirror neurons are often right next to motor neurons in the brain, copied feelings often lead to copied actions;

2875.  Thanks to these same mirror neurons, our emotions are enormously contagious;

2876.  The amygdala can read and identify an emotion in another person’s face within 33 milliseconds, and then just as quickly prime us to feel the same;

2877.  Studies have shown that when three strangers meet in a room, the most emotionally expressive person transmits his or her mood to the others within just two minutes;

2878.  When we feel anxious or adopt an overtly negative mindset, these feelings will start to seep into every interaction we have, whether we like it or not;

2879.  Emotions are so shared, organizational psychologists have found that each workplace develops its own group emotion, or “group affective tone,” which over time creates shared “emotion norms” that are proliferated and reinforced by the behavior, both verbal and nonverbal, of the employees;

2880.  Positive emotions are also contagious;

2881.  Positive emotional contagion starts when people subconsciously mimic the body language, tone of voice, and facial expressions of those around them.  Once people mimic the physical behaviors tied to these emotions, it causes them to feel the emotion themselves;

2882.  Smiling tricks your brain into thinking you’re happy, so it starts producing the neurochemicals that actually do make you happy;

2883.  While authentic positivity will always trump its faux counterpart, there is significant evidence that changing your behavior first – even your facial expression and posture – can dictate emotional change;

2884.  The happier everyone is around you, the happier you will become;

2885.  The happier we are at work, the more positivity we transmit to our colleagues, teammates, and clients, which can eventually tip the emotion of an entire work team;

2886.  The more genuinely expressive someone is, the more their mindset and feelings spread;

2887.  The stronger your social connections, the more influence you wield;

2888.  Workers in rapport think more creatively and efficiently, and teams in rapport perform at higher levels – their thoughts are attuned and their brains are in effect working as one;

2889.  One study of Dartmouth College students by economist Bruce Sacerdote found that when students with low grade-point averages simply began rooming with higher-scoring students, their grade-point averages increased.  These students, according to the researchers, “appeared to infect each other with good and bad study habits – such that a roommate with a high grade-point average would drag upward the G.P.A. of his low-scoring roommate;”

2890.  One way to build rapport, and therefore extend this influence, is with eye contact;

2891.  Studies show that rapport strengthens between two people when they lock eyes, proving that the old business wisdom about always looking people in the eye is scientifically sound advice;

2892.  Orgasms are stronger when we look into our partner’s eyes;

2893.  Eye contact tells our mirror neurons to fire, and when they do, the result is better performance, whether we’re in the boardroom or in the bedroom;

2894.  Studies have found that when leaders are in a positive mood, their employees are more likely to be in a positive mood themselves, to exhibit prosocial helping behaviors toward one another, and to coordinate tasks more efficiently and with less effort;

2895.  CEOs who are rated high on scales of positive expression are more likely to have employees who report being happy, and who describe their workplace as a climate conducive to performance;

2896.  Studies of sports teams have found not only that one happy player was enough to infect the mood of the entire team, but also that the happier the team was, the better they played;

2897.  Researchers found that the plant sugars that are fermented to give tequila its kick raise levels of a hormone in your gut that tells the brain it’s time to stop eating.  The hormone also keeps food in the stomach for longer, which prolongs the feeling of fullness.  And on top of all this, sugars in tequila known as agavins aren’t processed by the body, meaning they can’t make us fat;

2898.  Cooking with beer is an excellent idea.  A beer marinade tenderizes meat and adds another layer of flavor, but a new study finds a beer marinade might also help combat nasty substances and help keep you healthy.  The findings, which appear in an issue of the “Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry,” suggest that marinating meat in beer helps reduce the eventual formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (“PAHs”) on your dinner.  PAHs are “a group of chemicals that occur naturally in coal, crude oil and gasoline.”  They’re associated with cancers in laboratory animals and found in cigarette smoke.  PAHs can also form on meat when it’s cooked at very high temperatures, such as on a backyard grill.  Marinating meat in beer can help guard against the formation of PAHs.  Researchers tested three pork samples that they had marinated for four hours in different beers—a Pilsner, a non-alcoholic Pilsner, and a black beer—and subsequently cooked over a hot charcoal grill.  They found that black beer most successfully inhibited the development of PAHs, but that all three demonstrated a positive effect against the substance;

2899.  Lincoln was a (former) railroad attorney;

2900.  I hate it when people talk at the movies.  It’s selfish and inconsiderate.  They’re only thinking about themselves and they don’t care about anybody else who paid to see the movie. . . . Even if I can’t make out what they’re saying, the chatter is so distracting that I can’t follow the movie;