February 2006

Managing Attention in a BlackBerry World
By Jan Richards, J. G. Richards Consulting

Instant, persistent communication is here to stay. There's a certain attraction in the seemingly constant distraction. Here are a few:

It's exciting to be a bit on the "edge."
At any given moment you could be filled with the adrenalin rush of a hero in the making, the person called on to save the day.

Demand for your time and attention communicates importance.
For some people, an impossible calendar is comforting. It means you're in demand; you have some sort of power. The result for your co-workers, as they try to get a moment of your time? They learn to break big issues down to one message, one action, decision or incident at a time, to create "chunkable" action.

There's little chance of getting bored.
What chance do you have of feeling listless, being restless if you're regularly "pinged," poked and prodded electronically? And it can be a great diversion in a long, drawn-out meeting.

It gets addictive.
Just ask somebody who's lost his or her BlackBerry (unless, of course, it was "lost" on purpose).

Working and managing in tiny electronic snippets has benefits, of course, but also clear costs. Consider these:

Restarts take twice as long.
Literally. UC Irvine researcher Gloria Mack found that office workers work only 11 minutes on a project, on the average, before being interrupted. Once an interruption has occurred, it takes a full 25 minutes to return to the original task.

You're just plain less effective.
A study at the University of London, cited in a recent Business 2.0 article, found that the average worker's IQ drops 10 points with the constant interruptions of ringing phones and incoming e-mail. (The article noted that is "more double the four-point drop seen following studies on the impact of smoking marijuana.")

The small pieces never quite add up to the full picture.
It's like building a building one brick at a time. You're not quite sure what you'll get when the doors finally open. The bottom line, especially in a fragmented environment, is that the blueprint is one thing and the final building may be something else entirely.

There can be clear, measurable penalties.
There are costs for reduced or ineffective attention, such as missed deadlines, having to do something over, or doubling and tripling the cost of what you're trying to achieve. Most companies invest over 30% of their resources - both their employees' limited time and the company's money - in rework or wasted effort of various types, resulting from various causes. Authors of Lean Solutions, James Womack and Daniel Jones, show that value-less use of resources can be as high as 80% of a company's costs to produce and deliver a product or service. The bottom line: it pays to make it easy for people to pay attention to what's important.

You miss opportunities.
You get the point about missed opportunity when you think about possibly ending up in Cleveland - somehow, someway - if you really wanted to go to Paris.

SOLUTIONS

With all those costs, what can you do?

Find some time each day to tune out.
Turn off your e-mail, cell phone and other electronic aids and "tethers" for a defined period of time (it's not forever). Give yourself the time and space to think, to reach some sort of focused workflow. You'll thank yourself at the end of the day. Your manager and customers may, too.

Set clear expectations.
If you're not instantly available when someone calls or text messages you, let them know when you will get back to them. Or let them know ahead of time when you won't be available. Then follow up as promised.

IDEAS TO USE IF YOU'RE LEADING A TEAM

Get creative.
If you're faced with the challenge of competing for a team's time and attention, be creative. Take the time to make the information you're communicating easy to read, easy to hear, and easy to grasp. Write short, crisp sentences. Use charts or other ways of communicating a lot of information quickly. Provide an executive summary first, then the details for those who want them.

Make a picture.
Get graphic. Enhance the lure, the magnetic pull toward your long-range goal. (You are all invested in the goal, aren't you?) Create the common vision, milestones and measures at the beginning and engage the team in the process and the outcome, right from the start. Make it a "we" experience, not a "you," "me," "he" and "she" experience.

Be clear.
Where is "you are here" on the Big Picture? Teach people what to notice - the measurements and details that give them a clear sense of where they are on their way to the goal. Teach them what the details mean, and, based on the results, what actions they can take on their own on behalf of the group goal.

Create clear channels of information and communication flows.
In the absence of clear information, people do the best they can. Sometimes that means they interpret things incorrectly, or make the wrong call when they're choosing their next move. A simple decision that goes the wrong direction can make a huge difference in your team's outcome. Provide clear, reliable sources of information for greater understanding of the Big Picture when bits and pieces of information are not enough.

Check in.
Do this regularly, in person, if possible. Full team, full attention - cell phones, pagers and Internet off - for a regular, perhaps brief time together. Design and manage meetings crisply and efficiently, so that people know their time is valued.

Play by the rules of your game.
Decide, as a group, on your rules for working together. Then play by them and profit. If the rules don't set you up to win, as a group, change the rules or change the game, but play by the rules you name. You need a strong, simple, consistent structure to accomplish anything of importance in a challenging, fragmented environment.

A FEW QUICK THOUGHTS ABOUT ATTENTION

Genius is nothing but continued attention.
Claude Adrien Helvetius

A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.
Liberty Hyde Bailey

Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.
Unknown

Dealing with complexity is an inefficient and unnecessary waste of time, attention and mental energy. There is never any justification for things being complex when they could be simple.
Edward de Bono

Any man who can drive safely while kissing is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.
Unknown

©2006 J. G. Richards Consulting. All rights reserved.

Jan Richards, J. G. Richards Consulting, helps Bay Area companies clarify their vision, goals and priorities, create strategic and action plans, and implement strong and effective process management, adding up to higher revenues, and lower costs. She has consulted for more than 10 years with clients in the high tech, biotech, financial services and Internet arenas. For more information, contact Jan at 408-249-7287 or email jan@jgrichardsresults.com.