There are several strategies to help avoid or mitigate stress at work, such as taking a walk, eating lunch somewhere other than your desk, or getting enough sleep. However, there’s another strategy that many fail to consider—focusing on the positive things that happen to you.

“If someone were to tell you to focus only on the positive experiences in your day, you might be annoyed,” Joyce E. Bono and Theresa M. Glomb wrote in the Harvard Business Review. “People tend to associate Pollyanna-type positivity with inexperienced managers trying to squeeze a little more work out of frontline employees, or with the ‘keep smiling’ wall posters in the call center.”

Bono is the Walter J. Matherly Professor of Management at the Warrington College of Business of the University of Florida, and Glomb is the Toro Company–David M. Lilly Chair of Organizational Behavior in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. They led a group of researchers who studied the association between daily events and stress and found that “naturally occurring positive work events and a positive reflection intervention are associated with reduced stress and improved health.”

The study asked participants to spend five to 10 minutes at the end of each day and write about events that had gone well that day and why those events had gone well. After three weeks, study participants’ stress levels and mental and physical complaints declined. Furthermore, when the participants focused on positive events, they had less stress job-related thoughts at home.

“This simple practice — writing about three good things that happened — creates a real shift in what people think about, and can change how they perceive their work lives,” Bono and Glomb wrote. “It can also create a feedback loop that enhances its impact: we believe that people who reflect on good things that happened during the day are more likely to share those things with family and friends. Sharing positive events with others creates connections between people and bonds them with one another, further reducing evening stress. Ultimately, this also improves sleep, which our ongoing research suggests leads to greater alertness and better mood — which in turn leads to more positive things happening the next day.”

(Image: mediamolecule / Creative Commons)

Whatsonstage.com conducted a ticketing purchasing survey this past summer to find out more about buying habits, such as how often people went to the theatre to how they booked their tickets to how much they were willing to pay for tickets. Approximately 3,200 people participated in the survey, with 91 percent of responses originating from the U.K.

The biggest discovery was that 23 percent of those surveyed said that cast members are the No. 1 influence on purchasing tickets. Ticket promotions accounted for only 13 percent in influencing purchases.

“This is probably a fair reflection of the rise in so-called celebrity casting phenomenon that the West End has witnessed in recent years including Bradley Cooper in The Elephant Man, Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet, Kevin Spacey in Clarence Darrow, and Dame Judi Dench in The Winter’s Tale,” the website wrote in its survey results.

If people aren’t attending theatre shows, it’s because 81 percent say cost is the biggest deterrent. But if they are attending, then the ability to choose their own seats was cited by 84 percent as the most important factor when buying a theatre ticket.

“In comparison, just over half of those survey cited booking and transactions fees as the most important factor when buying tickets,” Whatsonstage wrote.

The full results can be found here.

(Image: Drew Withington/Creative Commons)

According to a Bloomberg Business report in 2014, almost 1,750 spectators are hurt at baseball games every year by batted balls. After a string of high-profile foul ball and broken bat incidents this season, teams across all levels are faced with a dilemma. Do they extend safety netting down the baselines to protect fans (and if so, how far), or do they leave the netting as it has been for decades? Is there something in between that can be done to help protect the fans while not diminishing their experiences?

I’m in the camp that believes it’s time for baseball to mandate additional netting. As a baseball fan and a purist, this isn’t an easy decision. As far back as I can remember, I have very fond memories of sitting close to the action, asking for autographs and bringing my glove in anticipation of foul balls. But as a stadium manager, it’s an easier decision. As stadium managers, it’s our responsibility to keep fans safe. I think we can add netting in a manner that doesn’t adversely affect the fan experience while improving fan safety.

Net systems like Dyneema promise maximum protection with minimal visual obstruction and have been adopted by several Major League Baseball (MLB) stadiums already. Adding this system down the baselines could provide protection while not obstructing fan’s views like traditional netting. Additionally, MLB could look at retractable netting like the ones their National Football League counterparts use for field goals that would allow the netting to be lowered before and after the game and between innings so fans can still have that close interaction.

Ironically, netting may also actually increase the fan experience. A lot of fans aren’t willing to sit close to the action out of fear, nor can they afford the expensive close seats behind home plate that provide netting protection (fans pay a lot of money to sit behind that netting so perhaps it isn’t too obstructive). Increased netting would allow more fans the opportunity to sit closer to the action and also allow them to enjoy the game without feeling stressed or afraid with every swing of the bat. For example, we recently had long-time season ticket holders ask to move their seats behind our home plate netting for the upcoming season, saying they feel like they’ll be more relaxed watching the games.

Another important component of the fan experience is the ability for guests to interact with the team during the game. Teams are telling fans to use their smartphones more than ever—text us, tweet us, Snapchat us, order your food from your phone, and share with the world that you’re at the game! But only do so when a 100 mph hour foul ball might possibly not be coming in your direction. Protective netting could actually allow for more of this in-game experience without fans having to keep their heads on swivels.

If we choose to add netting, the next question is how far the netting should extend, considering every ballpark has different sizes, shapes, and dimensions. According to Edwin Comber of the website www.foulballz.com, the most dangerous areas for foul balls are between the home plate netting and the end of the dugout. At Blair Field, we’ve come up with a few different ideas based on our stadium’s configuration, and most stadium managers know their ballparks’ nooks and crannies well enough to determine what provides optimal safety. MLB is also studying the variations in ballpark design that could affect netting and where balls enter the stands most often. These studies should help answer how far to extend the netting. However, if netting is at least required to extend to the end of the dugout, it would seemingly reduce many potential serious injuries.

Extra netting isn’t perfect and won’t stop every ball from entering the stands, but it will help. As stadium managers, it’s our goal to provide fans with a safe and enjoyable experience. I believe that protective netting can improve safety while not diminishing that enjoyable experience (and perhaps even enhancing it!). Baseball purists and fans who are against extra netting need not look back too far to find a time when processes changed and fans adjusted just fine. Walkthrough metal detectors were recently mandated for fans safety and many ballparks have found a way to make the entry process just as quick and efficient as before. Protective netting can turn out the same. Hopefully, after some likely initial pushback, most fans won’t even recognize the change, except for those fans that can have a safer and more enjoyable experience at the ballpark.

(Image: wBKRw/Creative Commons)

A stranger chided me for looking at my phone while I was at dinner with my wife two weeks ago. It embarrassed me, but he was correct—here I was eating a nice meal with good company, and I was busy plotting the next point on our trip across New England. I put the phone away; however, I admit I was waiting for the stranger to leave so I could continue my research.

Maybe that means I suffer from nomophobia, the fear of being without your mobile phone.

Two Iowa State University researchers investigated this phobia and created a questionnaire to help you determine if you’re a nomophobe. Score yourself a one if you strongly disagree up to a seven if you strongly agree with the following statements. Higher scores equate to a greater nomophobia severity.

1) I would feel uncomfortable without constant access to information through my smartphone.
2) I would be annoyed if I could not look information up on my smartphone when I wanted to do so.
3) Being unable to get the news (e.g., happenings, weather, etc.) on my smartphone would make me nervous.
4) I would be annoyed if I could not use my smartphone and/or its capabilities when I wanted to do so.
5) Running out of battery in my smartphone would scare me.
6) If I were to run out of credits or hit my monthly data limit, I would panic.
7) If I did not have a data signal or could not connect to Wi-Fi, then I would constantly check to see if I had a signal or could find a Wi-Fi network.
8) If I could not use my smartphone, I would be afraid of getting stranded somewhere.
9) If I could not check my smartphone for a while, I would feel a desire to check it.

If I did not have my smartphone with me:

1) I would feel anxious because I could not instantly communicate with my family and/or friends.
2) I would be worried because my family and/or friends could not reach me.
3) I would feel nervous because I would not be able to receive text messages and calls.
4) I would be anxious because I could not keep in touch with my family and/or friends.
5) I would be nervous because I could not know if someone had tried to get a hold of me.
6) I would feel anxious because my constant connection to my family and friends would be broken.
7) I would be nervous because I would be disconnected from my online identity.
8) I would be uncomfortable because I could not stay up-to-date with social media and online networks.
9) I would feel awkward because I could not check my notifications for updates from my connections and online networks.
10) I would feel anxious because I could not check my email messages.
11) I would feel weird because I would not know what to do.

(photo credit: Passetti via photopin cc)

We invest in what we think is important. In order to better understand what technology upgrades venue managers consider important enough to invest with their people and their cash, VenueDataSource surveyed more than 250 venues to identify the trends that are most common. The recently released “2015 Technology Report” provides new insights into what the fastest changing area in venue management has seen in the past two years.

The “2015 Technology Report” is now available to venue managers and suppliers who want to learn how current and planned venue technology investments stand in comparison to their peers:

• How many venues are embracing tiered pricing for Wi-Fi, and how many are getting rid of tiered structures completely?
• Are performing arts centers embracing mobile payment apps more than stadiums and arenas?
• How are venues addressing the increased use of drones inside our spaces?
• How much more are venue managers prepared to invest in technology spending in the next three years? And what applications and systems are the planned big-ticket items?
• What precautions are venue managers taking to protect their networks from hackers?

The “2015 Technology Report” has already been freely provided to the venue managers who participated in the survey. All members can access it now on the IAVM website at https://www.iavm.org/vds/vds-reports for further analysis of technology and trends in venues. You could also join us – for FREE – September 24 at 3 p.m. (EST) for an in-depth webinar review of some of the more interesting finds in the report. VenueDataSource  – We Connect the Dots.

(Image: Alex Abian/Creative Commons)