brains are wired to ensure that we will repeat life-sustaining activities by associating those activities with pleasure or reward,” according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.13 When drugs – or social media – feel “life-sustaining,” our brains are just doing their job all too well. Poor focus is the natural consequence of this neurochemical rush. Distracted employees are present without really being there, like the hapless people-slash-fuel source in The Matrix.
In the movie (spoiler alert), human beings lose themselves in a virtual world of endless seductions divorced from the messy, difficult reality known as Zion. (Sound like the Internet?) The problem, of course, is that it's not real. They're actually resting in a coma-induced cocoon while their bodies are being used as batteries to feed the machine. But the machines learned that give humans a virtual experience and neurochemical euphoria (i.e., girl in restaurant), and they will contentedly remain in a helpless and dependent stupor. However, while most of the world lives in bliss inside this fake world, a few know the truth, have unplugged, and are fighting for the rest. All goes haywire when Cypher, a long-time member of Morpheus' (Laurence Fishburne) rebel team decides – over a steak dinner and a presumably expensive glass of Cabernet with Agent Smith – that it's worth betraying his team in exchange for the hollow but alluring life in the Matrix. His one major condition: that he remember nothing of the real world. For him, ignorance was bliss. Better to escape into a sea of distraction than be forced to engage life on real terms. He chose distraction at a life-threatening cost to his team. More disturbing than the film itself is how prophetic the story has become. And in the real world, employees (and leaders) addicted to connectivity aren't just selling out their organizations and teams; they are also selling out themselves.
Distraction wins.
Focus loses.
Productivity plummets.
Efficiency becomes a myth.
And companies are starting to take notice.
How do I know? Because I'm the guy they hire to fix the problem.
Chapter 3
Tools of Our Tools
Throughout my childhood, I struggled to keep focused. When I was 12 years old, a doctor diagnosed me with attention deficit disorder. The challenge took a new shape as I left the confines of academia to enter the workforce in my early 20s. Bursts of extreme focus and a knack for digesting concepts couldn't make up for the dozens of small tasks required to succeed in my first j-o-b. Ever since, I have been fascinated with what causes someone to pay attention or not. Why were there times when focusing seemed as natural to me as breathing and others when I couldn't keep from being distracted if my life depended on it? I wanted to learn: What is attention? How does it work? How can we harness the power of it?
I pored through thousands of hours' worth of the latest research and interviewed leaders in neuroscience, social science, psychology, philosophy, and tech. Using myself – and eventually my company – as the lab rat, I experimented with ways to reduce distraction and improve focus. I spoke with CEOs and managers around the world – all of whom struggled to get their employees (and for many, themselves) to focus on the right things at the right time.
I saw that distraction affected every level of our professional culture. Questions like these haunted everyone, from small business owners to Fortune 100 executives:
What can we do about our e-mail problem?
How do we promote focus in an office of constant connectivity?
How do I get my people to stop wasting the whole day on their damn phone?
How do I avoid blowing a gasket the next time I see a millennial on Instagram at work?
Over the past six years, I've given speeches to hundreds of companies, consulted with some of the nation's most successful companies, and jumped into the trenches with CEOs and managers around the world – all with the goal of helping employees, leaders, and whole organizations deal with distraction. These organizations know all too well the challenges of overload, distraction, and constant connectivity. They don't know what to do about it. How can you preserve the benefits of accessibility without bringing with it all the chronic interruptions? Can you create an environment where attention is cherished and focus reigns?
Many leaders misdiagnose the problem altogether. Maybe you're one of them.
A client from a major financial institution recently asked me, “Can you help us reduce the number of e-mails we get every day?”
There's a surprisingly simple answer to this issue: It's called batch processing – waiting to review all of your e-mails together a few times a day, rather than continuously. I could have flown out to his office, spent 15 minutes teaching the technique, two hours eating a steak dinner with a $100 bottle of wine (both expensed), and then sent him the bill. Problem solved.
But inbox overload was just a symptom, not the disease. The client never thought to ask: Why is there so much e-mail in the first place?
As a certified speaker for the Center for Generational Kinetics, the number one millennial and generation Z research firm in the United States, I have addressed more than 200 audiences on the topic of how to bridge the generational divide. There's no complaint I haven't heard. The most prevalent: Millennials won't get off their phones.
I sympathize – with the phone part. The problem of distraction and constant connectivity affects employees of all ages, not just one demographic. According to a Nielsen report,14 for example, generation X spends 6 hours and 58 minutes a week on social media – 10 percent more than millennials. And gen Xers' time on everything from Twitter to Pinterest is increasing at a faster rate as well. Baby boomers are jumping on even more rapidly, which – perhaps – contributes to why gen Z is jumping off.15
Just as telling: Millennials consume far less media overall than their older counterparts, clocking in at 26 hours and 49 minutes per week. Gen X? Thirty-one hours and 40 minutes.16
But the overall problem isn't just about productivity. Constant connectivity affects every part of our personal, professional, and organizational lives. Recognize these symptoms?
• Your meetings lack focus and meaningful action. Some folks engage, but most duck into their phones or laptops – and everyone knows Chris is messaging the new intern.
• You and your employees have never been more in contact and less in sync. Missing is a deep sense of community, especially face-to-face communication.
• You and those you lead struggle to handle conflict and difficult conversations, especially in person. Empathy and “people skills” (once fodder for jokes about job candidates who lack “real” skills) have waned.
• Your organizational boundaries are fuzzy. Forget dedicated collaborative spaces – every room has essentially become the same room in terms of activity, behavior, and expectations.
• The boundary between work and home is even worse. Working from home can be a plus – so why are both productivity and domestic life suffering?
• Your well-prepared message fails to resonate amid shrinking attention spans. True audience engagement is elusive.
Clearly
Volkow, “Drugs, Brains, and Behavior.”
Sean Casey, “2016 Nielsen Social Media Report,” Nielsen, January 17, 2017, 6, http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/reports-downloads/2017-reports/2016-nielsen-social-media-report.pdf.
Jane Helpern, “Why Generation Z Are Deleting Their Social Media Accounts and Going Offline,”
Casey, “Nielsen Report,” 6.
