Distraction from Distraction by Distraction...TS Eliot

This certainly is the age of distractions but you knew that and you may have even finished this sentence without one! As Ken Costa says in his book, "Know Your Why" Distraction is everywhere and more worryingly, there is an increased desire for continuous distraction from real life. When I read these words I was shocked at how true they seemed for me and it bothers me. Our adrenaline is pushing overtime to cause, find, experience, and medicate in distractions. Yes, whether we call it like an anesthesia, a downer, an upper, or just another rabbit trail, we have given in to yet another addiction. But, like most addictions/habits help is available to create new beginnings that make us fully aware, highly functional and heroic to live lives to the fullest in servitude and love. This mental shift to the interruption being more important than someone breathing standing by is the same paradox as waiting in line at a counter and the phone rings and the clerk answers and helps the one on the phone. The lesson that we teach? The phone person is more important and urgent than the one who has been in line in front of me, who actually took the trouble to come into the store and face life in person. Not only bad manners, not good for business in the long term.

?I have been observing myself of late as I go to grab a drink with friends. A few seconds go by and the text is more important than the present company. The interruption could be a wife or urgent message, or it could be a business requirement, or it could be another worthless something that suddenly interrupted a heartfelt comment or the start of a sentence. When I make that choice to look at my phone while someone is talking, I have given in and said openly, the phone right now is more important. By the way, we all do this without saying excuse me or explaining, we just start texting back. We get away with it, again and again.

In business, we do this by our attitudes and may not make it so obvious. The cultures of customer service excellence get this right by making the customer the constant distraction that matters...and yes we want more of these distractions! The best customer oriented companies keep it pure, the person, the relationship is more important than the transaction. Cultures trump strategies (even great customer strategies) every time, and relationships trump transactions every time! The transactions still need to be the best they can be, it's not one or the other.