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Invest In Rest

One of the hardest things to get people to do here at H&Co is rest.

Especially those who've been brought up under corporate cultures that say "you'll be judged by how hard you seem to be working".

We interviewed a number of business experts and academics for a series of films for NHS Leadership Academy, and what came over loud and clear was that weary people work inefficiently. The most dangerous weary people are executives and managers because their decisions, tainted by tiredness, affect everyone beneath them.

One of the main things that happens if you don't rest is that you don't step back and reflect on the way you are doing things. We call this relentless style of working, 'tread-milling', and it’s really costly to a company in the medium/long term because the way you're doing what you're doing is almost inevitably sub-optimal. There’s a simpler, better way if only you'd stop, go and get some fresh air and come back to the task with renewed perspective.

So the NHS, believe it or not, has taught us to invest in rest. We've put wellies by the door ready for walks in the fields outside our studio, table tennis & pool are freely available and there's lots of instruments lying around waiting to be played. Even so, I still have to say to some of our team "have you taken a break recently?". They look up from their editing projects, bleary-eyed and say "Ah yes, blimey, is that the time!"

So break the spell of fruitless toil - Invest In Rest!

(See a clip of the immersive dramas we made for the NHS Leadership Academy, below)

 

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