The Costs of Diluted Focus: Insights from Johann Hari
What a joy to meet best-selling author and journalist Johann Hari last week!?
Brilliant, hilarious, informative and provocative, he cited startling statistics and drew on constructs from his books including Lost Connections and Stolen Focus as he highlighted what he views as a current crisis of focus and attention dilution.?
Weaving personal stories with diverse research reviews and his in-depth interviews with global neuroscientists and attention experts, Hari illustrated the pervasive issue of distraction in our personal and professional lives and emphasised the profound impact of constant interruptions on our individual and aggregate cognitive functioning, productivity and esteem.?
Multitasking, Distractions and Cognitive Overload?
A major theme of his session related to the extent to which multi-tasking and distractions erode cognitive function by diluting our attention, noting that employees now sustain focus on tasks for less than 45 seconds on average.?
Hari illustrated a study conducted by Hewlett Packard where participants completed IQ tests following two task conditions, where one group multi-tasked and the other was focused solely on one task. Participants who were multi-tasking scored on average 10 IQ points lower than those who were only focused on one task, an effect on IQ that is similar to smoking marijuana.?
Yet despite this impact on cognitive functioning, multi-tasking is omnipresent across our personal and professional environments. It is BAU in organisational settings with employees at all levels are constantly juggling diverse role requirements, multiple concurrent projects voluminous meetings and constant connectivity via multiple communication platforms. Our contemporary ways of working seem to assume we can manage it all, or perhaps even that this approach will somehow boost productivity, but studies reveal the opposite.??
Hari cited research by Professor Michael Posner that indicates the cost of deep focus being interrupted. Professor Posner found that it takes up to 23 minutes to restore focus to its previous level following a switch in task or distraction, leading to inefficiency and cumulative cognitive fatigue. Hari’s interviews with leading global neuroscientists and experts on attention underscore that our brains are not wired to juggle multiple tasks effectively and as a result, constant interruptions from workplace communication channels impair productivity in addition to a diverse set of wellbeing outcomes including burnout.?
Attention and Achievement?
Hari discussed the "switch cost effect," where juggling tasks comes with a significant cost, leading to mistakes, reduced creativity, and lower productivity among other risks and prices. He also posited that the reduction (or absence) of meaningful, focused work is taking a broader toll on humanity. Hari emphasised the importance of sustained focus for human achievement and highlighted the negative impact of modern technologies and societal factors on attention.? He describes attention as a superpower that deteriorates when not maintained, leading to a decline in competence and achievement, which in turn can impact our sense of self-worth and self-esteem.??
Burnout as a Systemic Problem?
It is easy to blame individuals for this decline in cumulative attention. Initially citing insufficient willpower and other traits and blaming himself for his diluted focus and diminished productivity, Hari shared his realisation that there was no escape from distraction, leading him to investigate the issue further. He embarked on a mission to interview global experts on attention and focus, discovering 12 factors that affect attention and concluding the vast majority of factors were more systemic in nature.??
Hari introduced the concept of playing defense and offense in addressing the attention crisis ranging from immediate personal changes to broader societal action. Although he shared some pragmatic tips for individuals (including the kSafe, a device that locks phones for between 5 minutes and 24 hours), he was emphatic in his belief that these external factors that can lead to burnout cannot or should not simply be solved through relying on individual-level prevention, mitigation and interventions.???
Akin to Thrive’s recent Mental Health Month post, he argues that many of these risk factors arise at the organisational and societal levels of analysis including the rise of technology and social media and how modern workplaces are structured. He challenged a reliance on individual-level solutions, noting they cannot address the root causes of burnout, which lie in poor job design, constant multitasking, and the diluting of our attention. Hari points out that organisations that fail to regulate these drivers and tools create environments where employees are perpetually distracted, unable to fully concentrate on complex tasks, and more prone to burnout.?
In our experience supporting our clients with sustainable performance, we see insufficient focus on core team or enterprise-wide goals and priorities exacerbating workload and wellbeing challenges and contributing exponentially to burnout risk.? Prioritisation is one of the most common team and organisational level challenges we are asked to help clients with across individual, team and organisational advisory work. Coupled with meeting overload and collaborative demands, leaders are increasingly finding themselves unable to deliver across broadening role mandates, with many leaders trying to protect their team members from these risks, often paying a price with their own wellbeing.?
A Call to Action?
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Hari criticised the design of modern technology and social media organisations who have designed products to maximise user engagement and drive ad revenue by invading our attention. He calls for a shift in our mindsets, encouraging people to be angry with the forces that have stolen our attention rather than with themselves or their children. He proposes a range of individual and societal changes are needed to combat these attention-stealing forces. He describes how these forces are “hacking and fracking” our brains, calling attention to the ways in which social media algorithms are designed to hijack our time, emotions and attention, therefore disrupting our connection to ourselves and others, likening the need for regulation to historical efforts against known chemical toxins. Highlighting how regulation and societal norms have shifted over the decades to protect us from toxic substances and threats to our safety, he proposed that in time we will look back and equate giving our 10-year old children access to devices and social media to the way we now perceive smoking around newborn babies.?
Johann concluded with a call to action, urging us all to reflect on our mindset, behaviours and norms while demanding better regulation to protect our attention and that of our children. Citing the example of Sydney-based mothers advocating for the removal of known toxins (leaded petrol), he encourages us to rise up and fight for systemic change.??
We have been reflecting since Hari’s session and circling back to our post earlier this month. The Mental Health Month theme for 2024 is 'Let's Talk About It', emphasising the significance of open dialogue and communication regarding mental health across various platforms and settings. With that in mind, we urge you to consider:?
#mentalhealthmonth #stolenfocus #productivity #efficiency #prioritisation #burnout #truecosts #thrivingworkplace #striveandthrive??
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