When You Know The Impact…

You might just try a little harder.

In 2007, researchers published a study of the work patterns of hotel maids. They were interested in seeing the amount of exercise involved in their jobs.

When asked, “Do you exercise?” most maids responded, “No.” Hotel maids do not typically consider their job to be a form of “exercise”.

So the researchers did something interesting. They split the maids into two random groups and gave a bit of information to one group.

• Group A: This group was told the number of calories burned in different tasks (i.e. changing sheets, vacuuming, etc).
• Group B: They were told nothing about the amount of exercise in their jobs.

A month later, something amazing happened. Group A lost an average of 1.8 pounds, whereas group B made no weight loss.

You see, when you know the impact of your work, it has a motivating effect. It prompts you and cues you to give just a little bit more. It’s reassuring. It lets you know there will be a positive impact in direct proportion to your input. When you know your impact, you know each little bit counts.

And a “little bit more” becomes substantial when it’s repeated over and over again.

That’s the power of student visible learning and the power of measuring impact over performance.