The Psychology of Sweeping

I swept my back porch this week for the first time since we moved into this house ten months ago.  I knew as I was sweeping it that the likelihood that I would sweep it again bumped up significantly by this simple, initial act.  Even as I was typing this piece on the same porch later that same afternoon, I noticed some dirt left over from flower planting, went to get the broom and swept the area again.

My wife and I often saw men and women sweeping the walks and streets in front of their homes and shops on a recent visit to Italy.  It is in some way a counter to the mindset of the “broken window” proposed by George Kelling and James Wilson in their classic 1982 Atlantic Monthly article.  They quote the research of Philip Zimbardo, who parked a car without license plates and with its hood up on a street in the Bronx and in suburban California.  In both settings the car was ultimately vandalized and destroyed.  “Vandalism,” Kellig and Wilson proposed, “can occur anywhere once communal barriers—the sense of mutual regard and the obligations of civility—are lowered by actions that seem to signal that “no one cares.”

We generally care for our possessions and our homes. We care for what we own.  Is it possible that the “psychology of sweeping” manifest by the Italian home and shop owners somehow extends the boundaries of what is “home” and with it the sense of ownership and personal responsibility for the walks and the streets by their homes and shops?

How might this psychology affect the attitude of staff in a service or heath care environment, where we too often relegate work spaces and common areas to the purview of housekeepers and maintenance workers?  It is a crucial question if you believe Leonard Berry that like all service industries, a positive health care experience is affected by three sets of “clues:” the “humanic” (people and culture) the “functional” (processes and practice) and the “mechanic” (built environment) of the delivery system.

The built environment is usually the first thing we see.  How it appears can affect our perception of all other experience “clues.”  Can we positively affect all three experience dimensions by encouraging a sense of ownership in our employees and staff members?  It begins as always with leaders setting the example, picking up scraps of paper in the hallways or on the grounds, attending to chipped paint, soiled furniture, worn rugs.  But how can the attitude become established as a part of the organizational culture?

I rarely sat on the back porch after we moved in last summer.  I suspect that having swept it, I will be out there more this year (weather and mosquitoes permitting).  For the first time, I drank my morning coffee out there this weekend.  It is now an extension of my home.

Did the broom make the difference?

Chuck Callahan  Henry V 4.3 – Lead from the Front  https://henryv43.wordpress.com/