Beer Splash part 2: Beer at work? What the burp!

NEW YORK, USA: Be regular and orderly in your life, so you may be violent and original in your work.

He quotes Flaubert quite aptly and beautifully when I asked him what’s wrong with the idea of beer in office.

Coming from someone who has cut his teeth ingeniously in the creative universe called advertising, these words, nevertheless, may sound unexpected.

Not only because advertising is quintessentially an industry where strange things are a norm rather than an aberration. Ad agencies are synonymous to free beer and freedom from dress codes, formal structures, rigid hierarchies, ivory cubicles, punching machines and so on.

But more so for the reason that we are walking around at an agency that has been illustriously mentioned at many places, including some envious conversations, as one of the most radically-designed and cool-in-every-sense workplaces. Talk of Grip Limited and one hears of colourful slides to work around, poles to swirl about and weird geometric atmospheres to charge people all the time.

But talk of beer to add in to that adrenaline, and David Chiavegato, Partner, Grip Limited, a Toronto-based cool advertising firm, (where on-site taps of draft beer are usual in Thursday sessions) maintains: “I'm not sure I want to have my dentist drilling my teeth while drinking a gin and tonic.”

But why?

Thank God It's Monday

“Don't credit a genetically predisposed disease for the wonderful music, art, and writing that these individuals created. If you look at their respective biographies and autobiographies you will discover they were at their best when they were sober,” contends Harris B. Stratyner, Ph.D., CASAC in a blog, ‘A Myth about Alcohol, Drugs and Creativity’, talking of some creative legends and whether or not alcohol had any role to play in the creative marvels they engendered.

Stratyner asks: Do you really think all of the great inventions, writing, compositions, paintings, sculptures, etc. would have been created only by individuals who were stoned?

A question that does not sound surprising. Alcohol has always maintained a negative connotation when it comes to the sacred environs of a workplace. A University of Cornell study highlights grave consequences like sexual harassment propensities, but the dark side of alcohol, even when asked from a layman, can throw up (pun intended) a list of issues.

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From misbehavior, unprofessional conduct, lackadaisical attitudes, tendency for insubordination or getting too casual about work to overexploiting a nice perk, free beer shots can have many unhappy upshots for bosses.

Chiavegato is ok if it’s all about an end of day social beer on Thursdays, and that too, only for about an hour or so. But as he reasons, it’s hard to see how a business could function on a day-to-day basis with people getting pie-eyed on a daily basis. “I have a hard enough time putting on a pair of pants while under the influence, let alone oversee a major campaign for a client.”

He has a point. Lack of productivity, poor attendance, or people throwing up on their keyboards is not something that is part of the agenda of a boss when he walks in for a Monday morning.

In fact, as he reckons, as per his experience with Canadian agencies, there are no other shops that encourage employees to drink while on the job.

May be something else then.

Bath Tub, Pillow, Eureka and Office

Can there be other alternatives to alcohol if it all revolves around attentional control, as stirred up by ‘Uncorking the Muse’? The study by Andrew F. Jarosz, Gregory J.H. Colfiesh, Jennifer Wiley from the Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago also mentioned altered cognitive states like sleep that have capabilities to spark creativity.

Research into sleep and creativity has demonstrated that individuals are more likely to come up with creative solutions to problems if allowed to sleep during an incubation period. As Kanady, and Mednick (2009) demonstrated that those who underwent a period of REM sleep after their first exposure to RAT items were able to take advantage of cues presented in an ‘‘unrelated’’ task before their second exposure to the RAT items, while those who remained awake or experienced non-REM sleep were not.

They attribute these findings to increased spreading activation during REM sleep due to a decreased inhibition of recurrent connections in the neocortex, a suggestion that aligns well with the current findings. This also coincides with recent work on the effects of positive mood on creative problem solving, where it has been suggested that positive affect increases activation in the anterior cingulate cortex, which increases access to competing associations in memory, as pointed out by a study in 2009 from Subramaniam, Kounios, Parrish, & Jung-Beeman.

Well, a popular belief is that altered cognitive processing, whether due to insanity, sleep state, mood, or substance use, may spark creativity among artists, composers, writers and problem solvers.

So should organizations allow more space on lateral, unconventional HR ways for better creative output? Like power naps or sleep pods?

The idea of napping is interesting, a really open-minded and adventurous sounding Chiavegato says. He thinks take brief intervals or breaks from focusing on problems often helps to ease the pressure off and often yields in ideas. “People often say their best ideas arise in the shower, which is probably the notion that you're giving your mind a bit more free reign and not forcing the issue. Perhaps we should install showers in the office.” He quips.

That explains the agency’s openness factor. It feels that it’s not a question of a conventional mindset that keeps beer out of doors at many workplaces. Agencies like Grip are inherently, and in fact proactively open, when it comes to disruptively creating conducive work atmosphere.

Illustrating the agency’s experiences with that slide and fire-pole as well a huge spread of open spaces, Chiavegato concedes that creating a more dynamic environment helps foster creativity.

“The whimsical elements such as the slide and the fire-pole are less functional (even though people use the slide) but more symbolic of an environment that allows people to feel like they can think outside the norm as opposed to stuffy and perhaps oppressive cubicle-centric workplace. Open spaces are great for ad-hoc meetings and conversations which often to lead to discussions that spark new ideas.”

That leads to another workplace, where incidentally, beer is a part of life and office.

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Not crowded here at all

It is often immediately assumed that it is only at advertising agencies or other artistically inclined professions, that alcohol can work its allure.

Can it not try its wonders at a technology workplace buzzing with engineers? Crowdsourcing player, Crowdflower rises up as an impressive exception here.Tech giants like Google and Facebook have already initiated the geek world to the concept of cool workplaces, and Crowdflower is taking the idea a notch higher.

Yes, you can bring your dog at work, you would be served food you love, you can play ping pong or music as you wish at this San-Francisco based enterprise crowdsourcing major, but there’s more.

There’s more in the kitchen, where apart from cool snacks, drinks etc, you will also find, yes you heard it right, beer. When employees work for long hours or late at night, you want to give them an atmosphere that feels like home, and not the typical office. That’s how the management thinks about its cool workplace policies.

“Having a beer or two helps. And we are all responsible people at work, so the negative results of beer at work have never been an issue,” shares Mollie Allick, Director, Events and Public Relations.

But as she explains: it’s more about an open, comfortable, collaborative workplace than just beer. “We would like to create a work environment that is more enjoyable so that they can stay longer and work happier. It’s important that you enjoy at the office. It may be about creativity or may be not. But it is definitely about a better office.”

That sounds an echo to the playful and dynamic work environment at Grip as designed by Toronto architectural firm Johnson Chou to inspire creativity and encourage collaboration.

Does that mean that a keg a better trick to replace the quintessential water cooler or coffee machine? Grip’s Chiavegato shrugs that off. “The keg is not a replacement for a water cooler or an office environment that fosters conversations and ad-hoc meetings. As I mentioned, we have an end of day beer on Thursdays. The conversations are for the most part social - people chatting about things other than work - probably blowing off steam. Contrast that to the kitchenette where people are by the coffee machine or grabbing snacks, you're much more apt to hear a discussion about current projects or campaigns. It's spontaneous and often productive.”

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That’s probably why Stratyner probes: So why do so many young artists think that alcohol and drugs enhance their creativity? Poets, writers, composers, painters, musicians, etc. get caught up in this self-defeating misconception. In his opinion it is an insult to creative people everywhere to think that those who had the disease of addiction or were that much more creative because of it.

Chiavegato agrees with that contention whole-heartedly. There are many stories of artists who have gone off the rails due to substance abuse, he reasons. “Because the process of creativity is a bit of a mystery, people may look outside factors and draw erroneous conclusions (i.e. drinking or drugs make me creative). I think those who are consistently creative over a long period of time do not need to abuse substances - looking at the people I admire in the industry, like Alex Bogusky, David Droga or Jeff Goodby, you will not find any substance abuse amongst them.”

To Beer or not to bear

What ‘Uncorking the Muse’ unravels is a layer under another one, if we look closely. It’s more about ‘why do bosses need help from beer’ rather than ‘can beer help bosses motivate their teams better’.

Some would love to let some beer leak with that midnight oil while some may apply caution. It’s a subject that will continue to be explored though.

Taking a break and taking off your attention is something that alcohol can also possible achieve, Chiavegato does agree. That shows that the research on alcohol intoxication is not too far flung out of the box. “Alcohol probably does act in a similar way, allowing you to take some of the pressure off the feeling of needing to solve the problem but it also seems to dull the very senses that are required to uncover great ideas. I'm speaking from personal experience.” As he cogently explains.

He is not alone in doubting the so-called powers of wine. As the wise poet Rumi also wondered:

If the wine drinker has a deep gentleness in him, he will show that when drunk. But I he has hidden anger and arrogance those appear. And since most people do, wine is forbidden to everyone.

Q.E.D.