Another great item from eCustomerServiceWorld's weekly update.

Just took my son to see the latest Harry Potter film. The Dementor characters, who suck the life and soul out of people with something known as ‘the Dementor’s kiss’ reminded me of a few people I’ve worked with in the past.

They also reminded me of this, from John Seddon’s most recent newsletter*:

“When Forrester (Research) recently visited DaimlerChrysler's diesel engine factory in Germany, we learned that its night shifts are more productive than its day shifts. DaimlerChrysler explained the discrepancy by the absence of management interference during the night shift."

And it reminded me of this, from Mike Harris, founding CEO of First Direct bank and now helping to lead the online bank egg:

“You can spread ‘life’s not worth living’ through your organization at viral speed, because the leader’s mood is infectious. A leader displaying great tolerance for stress and great vitality can infect the whole organization with that mood.”

Tom Peters says too many managers sap energy from their people by over-interfering or by failing to encourage or by lacking energy themselves.

Tom Peters talks about this as Metabolic Management and I relate it strongly to what happens with Improv work, where the energy of the group rises as people start firing off each other. And I'll chalk that DaimlerChrysler anecdote up as another "get out of the way" example.