A Survival Guide to Workplace Disruptions

HOW TO USE SCIENCE TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

The End of an Era

At many companies, private offices and workspaces have become a relic. The days of shutting your door to concentrate on a project without distractions have gone the way of typewriters and Rolodexes thanks to open plan offices, co- working spaces, and remote workplaces. And for call centers, advances in technology have raised customer expectations for crystal clear conversations.

However, you can recreate the disruption-free workplace of the past without building walls or installing cubicles. A retrofit sound masking system like the IQ Acoustics™ from IQ Acoustics delivers the acoustical seclusion workers need to focus, and surprisingly, positively impact your profits in ways you never expected!

Using Science to Your Advantage

Noise in itself isn’t always a concentration-killer. The brain actually prefers a little background noise as opposed to pure silence to stay in work mode. It’s why so many creatives head to quiet coffee shops to tackle challenging projects.

It’s unwanted noise—the whispered conversations we strain to hear, a constantly banging door, that guy who never stops coughing—that sends us over the edge.

The key to true worker satisfaction is to establish stochastic resonance, the optimal noise level that is favorable to our senses. While it sounds illogical, adding low, continual ambient sound to the environment through a sound masking system causes the brain to subconsciously blur distracting noise so that it’s no longer interesting to listen to. Yet, sound masking still allows for enough mind-boosting “good” noise to break through.

How Sound Masking Works

To better understand sound masking, imagine you’ re looking at a playground through your window.

If the glass is clear, you can see almost every detail, right down to the color of the slide and what the kids are wearing. Your brain stays focused on the playground rather than your work because there’s so much that catches the eye. It’s similar to when we overhear a conversation next to us—the brain wants to stop what it’s doing and sop up all the juicy details.

 If the glass is frosted, you can only see only a blur of colors. To the brain, the picture is so diluted and dull that the project at hand continues to remain the most interesting thing to focus on. Likewise, when a conversation is distorted, there’s nothing that draws the mind to it.

Want to reap these benefits?

Let's get started with sound masking today and drive your profits in ways you never expected.