It's official: mothers are the cleverest

Certainly mothers learn an awful lot from dealing with children that can be transferred to the office. Men who have stumbled across mothers' wisdom are so enchanted that they often feel moved to write 8,000-word pieces about it in the New Yorker which then turn into books on the subject, such as Malcolm Gladwell's Blink (message: why your intuition might actually be trustworthy because it's the sum of all your previous knowledge, instantly applied); or the politicians' favourite, Nudge, by Richard Thaler and Professor Cass R Sunstein (prompting works better than orders).

Anyone who deals with small children learns that direct orders usually backfire. Toddlers are human nature distilled down to its most honest form, with their access to instant, pure rage rather than sulks, grievances, or secret battles. Nudging suggesting, or putting things in their path is one way round them.

Other tenets of maternal wisdom that are handy at work are 1) Clarity. It is a great step for small children when they understand that you have a point that you can reason out with them. Adults, too, love good reasons most things that go wrong at work are due to poor communication. 2) Praise. Positive reinforcement is more effective than criticism. Children are not the only ones who need to feel good about themselves. 3) Snacks. The best paediatrician I know says that between 4 and 5 pm is the witching hour for children everything goes wrong as the blood sugar dips. Similarly for many grown-ups, small edible treats can lift morale.

Well-run companies such as Google (where food is always available) and Boden (I went round their office once and part of it looked like a patisserie) know this; it's the adult version of the raisins in the handbag. So in these difficult times, bring on the mothers and the biscuits.

* Catherine Ostler is editor of ES Magazine.