AMBA's Ambition magazine: Issue 70, February 2024

WHEN DAYDREAMING DRAWS DIVIDENDS

SCHOOL: Adolfo Ibáñez University (UAI) Business School COUNTRY: Chile

Daydreaming, also known as mind wandering – in which we stop paying attention to the tasks we are performing and get lost in our thoughts – is so prevalent that it accounts for 50 per cent of our time, according to one estimate. That’s why understanding the reasons behind this phenomenon and the value it can offer organisations is so important, says Héctor Madrid, an associate professor of organisational behaviour at UAI Business School. Indeed, far from being a problem to be eradicated, daydreaming can provide a way for employees to think outside the box and develop creative solutions, according to a study conducted by Madrid in collaboration with researchers at Washington University in St Louis. In the study’s two surveys of professionals in Chile, daydreaming was found to spur creativity. The benefit was apparent when focusing on daydreaming in which employees ruminate on challenges in their work and life, or ‘problem-oriented daydreaming’ as the study terms it. Less beneficial was ‘bizarre daydreaming’ in which people reflect on situations that would hardly, or never, occur in reality.

“Leaders at work should not necessarily penalise professionals who are digressing, because they might be incubating a change that could positively impact the organisation.” Madrid explained, in view of the results. The positive effect of problem-oriented daydreaming on levels of creativity was found to be most pronounced in those professionals who said that they highly identified with their work – ie when the type of work undertaken is a central component of a person’s definition of themselves. Conversely, when employees lacked identification with their work, the researchers observed negative relationships between both types of daydreaming and performance. The study also found that both types of daydreaming were more likely to occur in working contexts where the psychological demands are high. The reasoning here is that letting one’s mind wander is a chance to temporarily escape the pressure. The study, entitled Zoning Out or Breaking Through? , has been published in the Academy of Management Journal . TBD

10 | Ambition | FEBRUARY 2024

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