dynamics in the office's landscape

So, we spend about 8-10 hours a day working on this project. Most of the time is spent without speech, or any sort of change in the audible landscape. Even if there is music, its tempo and volume are static. In fact, during these long audio plateaus, the most noteworthy element of change is an exaggerated sigh, and stretch from a neighboring worker.

Because we interface with modern computers to complete our work, our movements are minimal. The visual landscape is comprised of a completely static room, virtually static monitors with simulated movement, and random muted human shifts. 

It all comes down to a very static environment.

So the idea is to introduce rewards and movement into the process- for all sorts of reasons. The mind works better, it creates a dynamic environment facilitating creative thought, etc.

The office introduced an array of Nerf weapons recently, and the result has been an upgrade in the environment's movement. We have a target that is shot at when little accomplishments are made. We have a tally board currently used to keep track of the amount of "That's what she said" remarks. We've been trading music time between workers to promote a more cooperative audio environment and get people out of their headphones and in a place where light conversation can take place. 

Obviously community time needs to be balanced with zombie time. Creating a rhythm for the group seems to be a natural solution to long hours of questionable qualitative and quantitative productivity.