There was an article along these lines up here not too long ago. My favorite anecdote was about a tech support department that had a stuffed teddy bear outside

There was an article along these lines up here not too long ago. My favorite anecdote was about a tech support department that had a stuffed teddy bear outside the room - to get in, you had to explain exactly what the problem was to the teddy bear. Apparently the teddy bear solved about half the problems people had...