Attention economy and the Next Normal
Kay, a brilliant assistant manager, was attending a weeklong online training that I was delivering in the third week of a very chilly January of 2021. COVID continued to keep us working remotely over online mediums.
Haven’t spoken to each other in a long time, Kay reached out to me over the official communication platform at the end of the first day for a casual catch up and expressed the excitement of having enrolled.
Kay, by nature wore a curious look most of the times, and sure enough, jumped at every given opportunity to ask very interesting questions.
On the last day of training, Kay reached out to me over a call and sounding very hesitant and apprehensive enquired the process of attending a full-fledged refresher before attempting the assessment that followed. I politely enquired to figure out the reason for such low confidence. I did not have to try hard; Kay’s immediate response was that while in training, there was constant oncoming work, urgencies and other interruptions from various stakeholders because of which the overall understanding of the subject was clouded and half-baked.
Kay also clarifies that this concern, also extends to virtual meetings and workshops, and s inextricably part of a remote-working life.
Let us be clear… in the above situation, assigning a blame on anyone, will be a gross mistake. Nonetheless, this begs a question in my mind…
How many Kay’s are out there?
May I ‘steal’ your attention please?
Smart phone users are interrupted by a minimum of four major social media apps besides other utility, entertainment or lifestyle apps. Each of these apps are competing for just one thing ‘your attention’ the most valuable resource around which every social media app is designed. This is what keeps the monetization going. All free apps are paid-for with ‘attention’ in exchange. All of these were designed as an advantage for the user until it became the new ‘Gold rush’. 1Statista states in its Feb 21 report a global average of 2 hours and 25 minutes of social media time per user - per day (Geographical and individual averages differ considerably). Your attention costs you productivity in the personal or professional world. Call it the curse of the AI push notification.
The work place has assistant notifications such as email pop-ups, chat pop-ups and other reminders. Imagine being in an important meeting/ training/ workshop; and you receive a call or an email from an important stakeholder; or perhaps an email with a confounding subject line. What do you guess will happen? ‘your attention’ will shift from what you were doing to this email/ call/ chat. Which means the cognitive functions of the brain will move from the previous task to the interrupting one. This is because 2there is no such thing as multi-tasking where cognition tasks are concerned but rather switching from one task to another. Emotional change can get triggered in a 10th of a second and your mind can start feeding you negative narratives. Unless you read it, you will stay restless and once you have read it, you might want to action it… little did you know that you would end up in a wormhole.
If all goes well, 3it can take an up to 64 seconds to revert your focus on the subject prior to the interruption. If the interruption was stirring (positive or negative) then ‘2attention residue’ is triggered, meaning - you will keep thinking of it until it is resolved which could be from minutes to hours or even longer.
The source of interruption today has a wide spectrum and it is here to stay.
Let bygones be bygones
The above clearly shows the susceptibility to the new way of training.
What about collaborative workshops for problem solving or innovation?
4Ringelmann study states that, with an increase in the group size, there is a linear decrease in commitment resulting in a phenomenon called social loafing; where each individual exerts less effort in a group than they would as an individual to complete a task, under the assumption that their effort may not matter. 5This boils down to two primary factors, which are loss of motivation and reduced coordination and these can be attributed to almost all kinds of activities. Loss of motivation and reduced coordination arises due to assumptions, experiences, infrastructure, people or procedural incoherencies.
A virtual world with high opacity due to inherent choices makes it conducive for social loafing in large virtual gatherings. Once a person is disengaged, the possibility of a complete get back reduces unless the stakes are high.
So how do we underpin it?
People first:
Training batch sizes are based on a manageable number. 25 is suggestable unless the subject is very technical. This will help you know them as individuals to stir discussions.
For workshops, have a group size of 5-7 max with 8-10 being an extremely rare requirement.
Strike dialogues with each individual throughout. Use names often.
Encourage video presence (especially for collaborative workshops)
Identify the withdrawn or the passives and tactfully encourage them without spotlighting.
Have sessions reasonably time-chunked with breaks (every 1.5 hours max). Give breaks long enough (10-15 min) depending on the length of the overall session.
Set clear expectations and plan in advance (unless it’s crisis management)
Eliminate fear of participation and failure. To avoid social loafing.
Use creativity to break monotony
Follow up with meaningful recognition (doesn’t necessarily mean reward)
Technological enablement for cultural practice:
A poor environment can be exceedingly overwhelming and detrimental to the outcome and productivity of a knowledge worker.
The environment should allow the participants to get in a state of flow. These were the very rules not too long ago.
Enable auto DND for participants as well: Technological design enabling auto or host enabled DND may sound restrictive; however, it will work wonders. These can be auto-enabled, basis the type of forum or when screen-sharing is in progress, not only for the person presenting, but also for the person participating. This is because ‘receiving is as important as presenting’… unless the person is marked as optional.
Obtrusive technology can be like a highway with potholes.
Loss of knowledge is loss of empowerment.
Intuitive suggestions /auto reply to stake holders when DND is in progress
Intuitive solutions (E.g. OOO notification) / auto-email notifications based on DND statuses can be generated in response to messages that come from important stakeholders or with high priority tags. While the DND status will prevent ongoing pop-ups or notifications from interrupting, the upfront visibility of the DND status will help set the right expectations with any stakeholder trying to reach out. This way the sender will have visibility and can plan accordingly.
Identify the DND forums
There needs to be a debate and discussion on list of DND forums…
Forums such as:
Client business reviews
Internal business/performance reviews
Assessment based High Impact/Investment trainings
One on ones / Appraisal discussions
Coaching / mentoring sessions Improvement workshops
Huddles /refresher sessions
Would you have allowed unwelcome interruptions at all times for any of the above in the old normal or a face-to-face scenario?
Once the practices are laid down and typified (as were in the physical world), the respect and the acceptance will follow with professionalism and benefits being clearly appreciated.
This is rather favorable than restrictive because one still has the choice of ALT+TAB at any time, which did not exist in a physical meeting.
Individuals as responsible digital collaborators:
Handle the big rocks first: Our minds focus well when there is nothing very critical waiting completion (Dr. Sophie Leroy). Hence, we need to complete all ‘critical’ tasks before we enter long duration workshops, trainings or meetings. Be mindful of the fact that not everything can be planned or foreseen. Hence, practice putting a lid on stray thoughts and managing matters judiciously as they come.
Manage expectations: For matters that are pending, discuss the work-around with the stakeholder/s in a way you know best.
Expect Interruptions: Be respectful of your priorities and of others. Negotiate realistic timelines with a sense assurance.
Schedule your distractions: Use break time to make/receive generic phone calls or view/send messages.
Plan social media time: Social media presence is extremely important especially for creators or those with online prominence but these need attention themselves. Hence, they need planning to avoid eclipsing other tasks.
Emergencies are priority: No second thoughts about that. These should ideally be calls and not left to message based apps. Repeated emergencies reflect poor planning or disinclination.
Conclusion
If I need to give undivided attention to something, I exercise the DND option at times. On my personal device, I have my social media push notifications disabled because I am a minimalist as a consumer and I personally find it very productive unless I become a creator. It has been a practice for quite some time and I intend to leave it that way.
With a remote working environment, the need for communication is more than ever. Yet, there is an equated need for a focused presence in all that we undertake. Loss of focus creates pseudo productivity, which is not holistic and lacks on many fronts.
In my view, as organizations, partners, managers, subordinates or, individuals, we all are shaping the evolution of professionalism using the mediums at our disposal.
Together, we have an opportunity to enjoy the ‘next normal’ with a sense of higher collective accomplishment.
Finally to conclude with… Kay eventually earned the certification through focused determination.
References:
1. Statista: https://www.statista.com/statistics/433871/daily-social-media-usage-worldwide/
2. Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks – Dr. Sophie Leroy UW https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0749597809000399
3. Dr. Richard chambers https://www.bodyandsoul.com.au/wellbeing/the-one-thing-that-will-make-you-more-efficient/news-story/416f41fe680d3c98f64795ace5a5bfa1
4. Ringelmann Rediscovered: The Original Article, David A. Kravitz & Barbara Martins (Journal of personality and psychology) https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David_Kravitz2/publication/209410111_Ringelmann_Rediscovered_The_Original_Article/links/0deec5384ffc87e9c4000000/Ringelmann-Rediscovered-The-Original-Article.pdf
5. Steiner, I. D. (1972). Group Process and Productivity. New York, NY: Academic Press.
