Productivity increases at stand up meetings

With employees sitting down at their computers most of the working day, it makes sense to get the blood flowing again during meetings by making everyone stand up. In fact, it can even improve productivity and creativity.

These were the findings of a study by Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, which were recently published in the Social Psychological and Personality Science journal.

There has been plenty of research in recent years that suggests sitting down all day kills productivity and creativity, and this latest study poses the same conclusion.

"A workspace that encourages people to stand up is going to lead to more collaborative and more creative outputs," researcher Andrew Knight explained to Reuters.

Researchers recruited 214 participants and split them into 54 groups of three and five to create a university recruitment video. The groups had half an hour to come up with the ideas and then film their work.

However, groups either worked in a room that had a white board, table and chairs or one with everything par the chairs. Watching from the next room, researchers analysed how the participants worked together and how good the final video was.

Participants were also asked to wear small sensors around their wrists to measure physiological arousal and interest levels.

"In social situations, joint experiences of arousal promote affiliation and collective sensemaking, both of which are essential for motivating collective action," Mr Knight said.

At the conclusion, they were asked about how territorial their group members were. Researchers found the groups that stood up were more likely to work collaboratively and share ideas and information. 

"Typically when people are seated at a conference room, they own their own space in the room, they probably have their own paper, their own notebooks that they're working on and these things create a very individually oriented mindset," Mr Knight said.

As well as hiding the meeting chairs, business owners looking to increase their overall productivity could invest in productivity software, which is designed to streamline services and make businesses more competitive in the market.