3. The Water Cooler Effect: Why a Friendly Chat Is the Most Important Part of the Work Day

After you get sensing data, what should you analyze first? You could go after org charts, meetings, or compensation systems, but investigating something basic would be better, something fundamental to what it means to be human—such as water. For example, look at the ubiquitous source of water in offices across the world: the water cooler.

Buying a water cooler is the single most important investment a company can make. Well, maybe that’s overstating things a bit, but not by much (and no, this is not a commercial plug that Poland Springs®, makers of the finest water coolers available, paid for me to put in this book).

The reason that water coolers are so ...

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