To replicate this effect, leaders need to explain to teams "why what they do is important, who it matters to and why." "It's that that keeps a team focused," de Rond says. "Otherwise it's just work."

De Rond also believes it's necessary for workplaces to engineer a culture of "psychological safety" in which "it's okay to ask questions."

Allowing employees to air the doubts and anxieties that arise when they are bored is, he notes, "a very frightening thing" for organizations to do. "Most people would suspect that if you start questioning protocol, you then eat into morale."

But in an environment of psychological safety, he theorizes, "what you should see is some of the vulnerability of the people involved. It's where people can be okay with that, instead of being defensive about it. If anything, it should really boost morale."