The Case for Wearing Productivity Sensors on the Job

Sociometric Solutions’ Ben Waber joins our experts discussing e-mail overload, open office plans, telecommuting, and eating lunch at their desks.

Tell me about the idea of putting sensors on people at work.
We already actually wear sensors when we’re at work, with our company ID badges. We’ve added some additional sensors so that we can understand things like who talks to whom and how people talk to each other. So looking at the tone of voice, how much you talk, how much you interrupt, how quickly you speak. Then we can see—if a particular team is doing really well at work—why is it working so effectively?