Can Simple Preferences In Your life Be A Sign Of Success?
During a study to determine workplace efficiencies and better working conditions, some very surprising data was discovered by pure accident about what makes employees work well and be more productive. Like most studies, the researchers had their own predisposed prejudice about the outcome of the study and were looking for the answers to their own assumptions as to why some people work very efficiently and others just go through the motions of work until the day is over.
The researchers looked at a large call center business that helped customers with computer problems and served as a help desk to a large customer base. The researchers took customer feedback on the quality of their experience working with the help desk employees and discovered that out of 100 employees, 50 employees had very positive feedback and the other 50 had average to negative feedback. This was a perfect sample of data for the study and they were very excited to find out what the 50 employees were doing to get such a good review. Even though the sample was perfect, the researchers could not pinpoint what made these 50 employees so good at their job. They looked at desk position, workplace environment, sitting position, ergonomics, social media habits, and nearly everything they could think of to try and discern a difference in the 50 stellar employees, but nothing could be found. Everything that the study was based on yielded that the 50 good employees were no different than the 50 mediocre employees. They were virtually the same in respect to the basis of the study!
One researcher tried something else on a whim and looked at what browser preferences of the 50 good employees had on their work computers. He noticed that all 50 of those employees had downloaded their browser from the internet, like Google Chrome or FireFox. He then looked at the mediocre employees and noticed they were working on the default browsers that had been pre-installed on their work computers, like Explorer and Safari. This was the only difference the researchers could find in the employees that were doing their job well and the ones that were just average. At first, they thought it was just a fluke and a weird coincidence but the one thing that kept showing up was, the browser result was absolute dead perfect to the employees work performance. None of the mediocre employees had downloaded their browsers, and none of the good employees were using a default browser.
Even though the researchers didn’t want this result, they had to work with it. They were wanting to find workplace environmental issues to be the case or something they could fix, and make recommendations to the company on not only how to fix it, but how to fix someone’s browser preference to improve workplace performance. What the data eventually concluded was that there is a certain type of people that can thrive no matter what the environmental conditions are. They have their own way of doing things and set their minds on the task with a passion for their work. They have a style that they prefer and they are generally up to date with mainstream media and technology. The study called these people the download mindset people. They customize and download their preferences, like Chrome and FireFox. The other people were the ones that just accepted the default browser, like Explorer and Safari on their work computers. They were the ones that were looking for the bare minimum work required to do their jobs to satisfactory and had a much worse performance review. The study called them the default-minded people.
The researchers were faced with a real challenge with their findings because the only fix that their data could recommend with any effectiveness would be to suggest that the company let the default-minded people go and rehire fifty new employees with download mindsets. This would be a massive effort to try and accomplish with terminating half of the workforce. The company would have to shift the extra workload off onto the remaining employees. There would be a loss of business due to an understaffed company, downtime, and overtime, and, probably the hardest part of this whole thing would be- how to fill 50 positions with the download-minded great new employees!
The point I want you to see in this story is, most workplace studies like this one are usually looking for problems with the company and workplace environmental issues that need to be fixed on a management level so that every employee can work to the best of their potential. But I think we discovered in this situation that there are just going to be better employees than others no matter what the situation is, or the environment. Sorry, there just is! The download mindset people’s work ethic goes far beyond just their browser preference as well! These are the people that become rising stars in the entrepreneurial world. They don’t settle for the prepackaged default setting of life and they must customize their medium to be fulfilled and creative.
The download mindset is the brain of achievement. They know they cannot only survive, but thrive, in any situation or environment. They will never be the sheep just going through the motions to receive compensation for satisfactory work. They are the ones that will create and challenge the status quo by being assertive toward their craft. Can you imagine a download-minded person with a white-hot desire to achieve in the business world?
Daniel J Bockman
