…Knowledge is Knowing not to put it in a Fruit Salad.
In a previous edition, we discussed the relationship between Information (organized data) and Knowledge (information in context). I bring it up again not to highlight the contents of a fruit salad, but to highlight a much more crucial issue for leaders – timely decision-making. In my work with leaders, we describe the first two steps in the decision-making process as 1) Identify the Issue and 2) Gather and Analyze Information. The decision-maker must properly define the scope of the problem, situation or challenge in enough detail to create tangible alternatives. They must also gather the right amount of the right information to make a knowledgeable decision. (click here to continue reading)
Information overload is not a new challenge. Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Senator and Adviser under Nero in the early part of his reign. Seneca was a prolific letter writer whose thoughts, insights and convictions were well read throughout the literate Roman Empire. Even in his day, he noted the issue with connectedness by observing “the danger of allowing others – not just friends and colleagues, but the masses – to exert too much influence on one’s thinking”. Without mentioning these words were written around the time of Christ, you could easily assume it was written recently.
To the decision-maker, it is no longer just a task to find the relevant information to use, but to weed out and discard the unnecessary information and do it at the speed of competition. No easy task when the amount of information available to us doubles every 9 – 10 minutes (depending on which study you read). The proliferation of Twitter, blogs, Facebook and texting contributes to this informational tsunami. They also create a greater challenge analyzing the volume of information as messages become shorter and cryptic (Twitter reports over 2 billion tweets a month) at the same time ensuring they are factually correct. We now get billions of messages just to tell us someone, somewhere created a message earmarked for us to read. Last month, AT&T sent 1 billion such messages over its network up from 400 million a month 11 months ago.
As I look at the impact this phenomenon has on our decision-making process as leaders, I see less contingency planning due to the instantaneous nature of technology and less reflection on the meaning of information to create sustainable knowledge. I recently observed a customer in a local Subway sandwich shop dictating multiple orders to the person making the sandwiches. After each order he went back to his phone for the next order. I wondered to myself if that person were in a business environment and had to remember multiple facts, would that be his way of managing information?
Seneca wrote “Elite, literate Romans were discovering the great paradox of information: the more of it that is available, the harder it is to be truly knowledgeable. It was impossible to process it all in a thoughtful way.” As leaders striving to make effective knowledgeable decisions about your business, how many tomatoes are in your fruit salad?
Lead Well!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Workers Distracted by Email and Phone Calls suffer a fall in IQ…
…More than Twice that found in Marijuana Smokers!
These are the conclusions of a 2005 study funded by Hewlett Packard and conducted by the University of London Institute of Psychiatry. It also sets the stage for this month’s topic on multitasking. Many leaders today pride themselves in being able to multitask, in some cases the more multi- the better. They also expect their teams to be able to multitask falsely believing it to be a sign of efficiency. In fact, it is quite the opposite of the truth. (click here to continue reading)
While it is true the brain can simultaneously manage multiple tasks like controlling your heartbeat while you listen to music, leaders are most focused on is the ability to pay attention to multiple tasks and do them well. In this scenario the brain is working in a sequential fashion. No matter it appears someone is doing multiple activities at one time, the brain is really task-switching one after the other very fast. In truth, the more we ask the brain to do at any given time the less our ability to pay attention any of those activities. The most visible examples of this phenomenon are driving and performing other activities at the same time (talking on the phone, texting, applying make-up etc.) drawing attention to the serious safety issues.
But what of workplace productivity? Is it such a big deal that we try to do many things simultaneously? In a practical sense, when we interrupt what we are currently focused on to take a call on our smart-phone or respond to an email on our computer, the brain has to shift gears to provide new focus on a new topic. This means quickly shifting our subconscious rule sets for to determine how we handle this new task. When we are finished answering/responding to the interruption, we shift again and once more re-establish focus on the original activity (how often do we say “Where was I?”) Unless you have well-established working memory, this can result in a complete restart of the original task. A University of California study found it took office workers 25 minutes on average to return to their original tasks after being interrupted by phone calls and emails. How many times are you interrupted in a day? Do you set aside blocks of time during your most productive time of the day to work on your high priority work? What happens to productivity when you lose nearly a half hour every time you are interrupted? In 2007 it was estimated extreme multitasking and information overload annually costs the U.S. economy $650 Billion in lost productivity.
Another important question for leaders is how many times a day are they the interruption? Leaders espouse the benefits of productivity and efficiency, but are they aware of how many times they are interrupting their teams and staffs for low priority reasons? Are they creating a climate of poor productivity due to their own challenges with time management and productivity? In my experience, the best way to answer these questions is to take two weeks and track what you and your staff are doing with their time. If you notice they are doing something different every 15 minutes it is a sure sign they are trying to multitask and may be struggling to focus on more important things. How are the most productive staff members managing their time? In every opportunity I had to conduct these time-use studies with my teams we created improvement programs that more than paid for themselves in increased productivity!
The idea behind this topic is not that we don’t have the ability to do multiple things at one time (Millennials will debate they can do this all day long!). It is whether we can produce desired results by doing multiple things at one time. To achieve your desired results, are you relying on employees who are less productive than marijuana smokers?
Lead Well!
These are the conclusions of a 2005 study funded by Hewlett Packard and conducted by the University of London Institute of Psychiatry. It also sets the stage for this month’s topic on multitasking. Many leaders today pride themselves in being able to multitask, in some cases the more multi- the better. They also expect their teams to be able to multitask falsely believing it to be a sign of efficiency. In fact, it is quite the opposite of the truth. (click here to continue reading)
While it is true the brain can simultaneously manage multiple tasks like controlling your heartbeat while you listen to music, leaders are most focused on is the ability to pay attention to multiple tasks and do them well. In this scenario the brain is working in a sequential fashion. No matter it appears someone is doing multiple activities at one time, the brain is really task-switching one after the other very fast. In truth, the more we ask the brain to do at any given time the less our ability to pay attention any of those activities. The most visible examples of this phenomenon are driving and performing other activities at the same time (talking on the phone, texting, applying make-up etc.) drawing attention to the serious safety issues.
But what of workplace productivity? Is it such a big deal that we try to do many things simultaneously? In a practical sense, when we interrupt what we are currently focused on to take a call on our smart-phone or respond to an email on our computer, the brain has to shift gears to provide new focus on a new topic. This means quickly shifting our subconscious rule sets for to determine how we handle this new task. When we are finished answering/responding to the interruption, we shift again and once more re-establish focus on the original activity (how often do we say “Where was I?”) Unless you have well-established working memory, this can result in a complete restart of the original task. A University of California study found it took office workers 25 minutes on average to return to their original tasks after being interrupted by phone calls and emails. How many times are you interrupted in a day? Do you set aside blocks of time during your most productive time of the day to work on your high priority work? What happens to productivity when you lose nearly a half hour every time you are interrupted? In 2007 it was estimated extreme multitasking and information overload annually costs the U.S. economy $650 Billion in lost productivity.
Another important question for leaders is how many times a day are they the interruption? Leaders espouse the benefits of productivity and efficiency, but are they aware of how many times they are interrupting their teams and staffs for low priority reasons? Are they creating a climate of poor productivity due to their own challenges with time management and productivity? In my experience, the best way to answer these questions is to take two weeks and track what you and your staff are doing with their time. If you notice they are doing something different every 15 minutes it is a sure sign they are trying to multitask and may be struggling to focus on more important things. How are the most productive staff members managing their time? In every opportunity I had to conduct these time-use studies with my teams we created improvement programs that more than paid for themselves in increased productivity!
The idea behind this topic is not that we don’t have the ability to do multiple things at one time (Millennials will debate they can do this all day long!). It is whether we can produce desired results by doing multiple things at one time. To achieve your desired results, are you relying on employees who are less productive than marijuana smokers?
Lead Well!
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