On Topic: Managing corporate culture

A couple professors at Northwestern University came out with a study not long ago that claimed when subjects wore white lab coats - you know, the kind medical doctors, research scientists and the actors on “Grey's Anatomy” wear - they performed better on tests.

However, when participants were told the jackets weren't doctor's coats but the type worn by artists - think of the ones worn by painting instructors on early morning Public Television - they didn't do very well at all.

That is, the coats, when perceived as smart-people costumes, made the wearers smarter. White is the new black.

The Northwestern researchers, Adam Glinsky and Hajo Adam, called this phenomenon enclothed cognition. What you wear, and how you feel wearing it, influences your brain - how you think and how you feel about things.

I have to say, I didn't find this conclusion all that surprising. During the two years and four days that I taught high school - American lit and journalism - in Ohio, I knew I was smarter when I wore a necktie.

I clearly was more insightful, more patient and knew a heck of a lot more about giant white whales, “The Scarlet Letter” and “The Great Gatsby.” Funnier, too.

Actually it really wasn't about what I felt. It was about what the students perceived - and that's that teachers who dressed like teachers (that is, wore ties) were better.

Some companies have had difficulties grasping this notion - that the costume makes the person. A national insurance carrier I once worked for declared employees could wear casual clothes to work - as long as they bore no logos other than that of the parent company.

This was in Columbus, Ohio, the hometown of that really big university with the omnipresent football team.

Needless to say, attempting to ban scarlet-and-grey apparel suffered a swift and overwhelming defeat.

But can something as simple as allowing employees to wear clothes that make them more comfortable, feel more like themselves, really create a more profitable company?

Well, yes, suggests a new book by Charles Duhigg. In “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” (Random House), the New York Times reporter details large organizations that altered their entire culture by fixing only a few issues.

Starbucks Coffee, for example, zeroed in on implementing employee discipline, which manifests itself - when it works the way it's supposed to - in cheery customer service.

Alcoa dedicated itself to employee safety.

How could this be? Duhigg found from his interviews with more than 300 business executives, scientists and others that changing one habit companywide could expand, like a happy virus, and positively affect other behaviors.

Like a good deed remembered and passed on.

This means companies - to make big cultural changes - need to find the right first step. Even if it's allowing employees to wear T-shirts and emphasizing smiles.

These days, as a business editor, I tend to wear a vest. I like vests.

They also seem, well, business-y, and function as a costume. Sort of like Superman's cape or Captain America's shield.

Also, if they start to get too difficult to button, I know it's time to go on a diet.