Growth hurts

Acquiring any new skill is connected to collecting bruises. I don't know why people, who act in business situations, can no longer imagine stumbling and falling on the floor.

Is it because:

they consider them as grown ups who should not collect any bruises anymore?
they are operating with foreign money, and thus just want to be careful?
they think the most profound competitor is the one who collected the least bruises?
falling provides them with a feeling of inferiority?
not falling has been symbolized as success?

Stress kills productivity

If our body anwers to stress, it puts all energy to the muscles, reduces thinking to a minimum and prepares to runaway.

Did you ever encounter:

a situation where you lost the thread just because a sudden fear of losing it seemed to shut your brain down?
entrepreneurs talking to employees in a way so they react similar to the above statement?
a project leader exerting more pressure the closer people were desperately bustling towards deadlines?
superiors deliberately straining their people just to give them less time to think?
people with burnouts resulting from internal competition?
your boss rant about furiously just when you're trying to fix this major crash and get servers back up?

Results arise from not being available

This one may be a little bit tougher. I'll be more figurative. Imagine the following situations, and draw your own conclusions. Which of the following statements do you think is appropriate:

When calling your child at a date, this will contribute, because you have a ton more experience with dates and need to make sure there will be results.
If you know your significant other will repeatedly walk in, push through the rows, ask you a couple of questions and leave, this is the best prerequisite for really enjoying a movie at a theater with your friends.
Your instructor calling you while performing on stage at a local concert hall will ensure a great performance.
Practicing math is best done at a local coffee shop. The audience keeps your focus on avoiding mistakes.
You consider it a decent strategy to place people in open offices and then discipline them to by all means be quiet.
Your boss not being available is usually the reason why you cannot get anything done.
You manage servers best while being observed by at least two people.
You never offered somebody to be available just to distract from not being able to deliver.

Lazy ways of doing things are superior

Now, what would you say:

Cooking dinner is superior to ordering dinner if all you have to do is getting your stomache filled.
Placing toilet rooms behind the house provides better hygiene.
Visiting the local radio station provides better information than lying in your bed and listening to their newscast.
Working at an open office desk provides better results than laptopping on your couch.
People walking about checking their watch will reach their destination earlier than people who are sitting lazily in the train, gazing out the window.
From watching people sit in front of computer screens, you can judge what they are just busy with.
You never clad yourself in an air of bustling activity to relieve the fact that you were behind schedule.
You never inserted blank lines, increased font size or added complicated graphs just to make the same result look like more effort.
You think the figure in this illustration is just a lazy bum who doesn't get any work done.

If something breaks, throw it away

This is the one, big exception to the above rule.

Would you say, that:

If your TV set breaks, it is intelligent to go buy the old model, just because the new one comes with new features and has a completely revamped remote control?
Driving your overhauled, old car will bring you more safely to a destination than a new one, just because you are used to it?
If one of your servers fail big time, it is superior to reinstall the old version from backup than importing the database to a readily available, newer version?
Your administrators are less capable of getting the new version to work than fixing the old?

Ok, next ...

Meaningful things may be simple

Compare the following two pictures. Which one ...
... conveys more information about my work attitude?
... gives you a better impression of my superb drawing skills?
... required more work to be finished?
... would you call more professional?

Did you ever spend 3 hours on a slide for something which could have been drawn in five minutes on some piece of paper, just to look more professional?

Personal chaos is more productive than central organisation

Would you say ...

... people keep their files in disorder just because they are too lazy to structure them properly.
... people do things in weird ways just because they don't know how to do it right.
... people keep their desks or desktops in disorder just because they have no work discipline.

Do you ...
... put your files where you best see fit?
... do things how you think is best and learn from experience?
... give a dang about your desk when there really are more important tasks to do?

Would you think ...
... telling teams how to organize themselves will improve their productivity?
... telling teams how to organize themselves will make you be liked?
... centrally maintaining file structures will reduce backup times?
... cataloguing data is more efficient than searching via google?

Having two people think is superior to just one

In your company or elsewhere, did you ever observe ...

... people arguing on who is entitled to speak about a particular subject based on position rather than knowledge?
... people think one is lazy or has serious deficits if two people are working at the same screen for longer periods of time?
... several departments working on the same subject?
... these departments sharing their experience on a regular basis and focussing on particular aspects rather than complaining to an abstract force about their lost pride?
... people dive alone?
... yourself thinking your projects do not have as much at stake?