Today, I stopped in at Borders to get Dr. Firlik’s new book, Another Day in the Frontal Lobe, and after four chapters I am glad I made the stop.
One incident bothered me though. As I waited at the checkout ... the manager caught my attention while training a middle age woman to do every trivial cash out detail in a prescribed order. "So you scrape the code with one hand, take the money with the other – and lay the book this way right here to your right"…. Does your workplace demand too much routine from too many people?
Too much sameness reduces human brains and it also takes a toll on the bottom line. 
Why then do more and more
Business leaders – it seems – can make faster money if workers do the same things in the same ways. They face less risk - with more reliable returns, and that price seems to some leaders, worth the loss of creativity or growth over the long term.
Have you seen it happen?
Training programs cut costs by standardizing more, and make big money for corporate
I do know the brain shrinks – and also wires against creative outputs when we repeat too much of the same. Fast, easy rewards maybe ... but with cost. For instance, you’ll see evidence in workers who lose their sense of wonder, and in workplaces that offer little incentive for innovation.
Check posts below to see dangers to the business brain, when rigid routines pre-empt any creative approaches – as I saw at Border’s store today.
- Workers’ Brains Suffer from Hebbian Learning
- Any Intelligent fool Can Make Things Bigger
- Standardization Limits Key Parts of the Human Brain
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