The Attention Deficit Society

Maybe it's all the time we spend on the Internet.  Or maybe all the video games.  Or just the fast-paced way we live our lives, but something is driving us to become an Attention Deficit Society.

I notice it mostly in email exchanges.  I send someone an email asking them to address points A and B.  Invariably, the response comes back addressing either A OR B, but not both.  Since these folks function normally otherwise, and show no indications of regular ADD, I can only presume they're afflicted with the societal version.

It's gotten to the point where I rarely send out requests to address points A and B.  Instead, I send an email asking about point A.  When I get the response, I simply reply, saying, "Thanks for the response.  That reminds me, what about point B?"  It requires two emails, but it gets the job done.

Another indication is not fully catching everything in an email, and this usually occurs in a "lengthy" email.  (The standard for "lengthy" gets shorter and shorter; it now stands at about 5 lines.)  In this instance, I inform the other person on things they need to know about Tom, about Jim, and about Sally.

Here the response is, "What about Jim?"  And it isn't always the middle topic that gets missed.  Somehow we're just so busy breezing through emails, that we miss important information. 

In the interests of full disclosure, I must admit that I'm guilty of it, too.  It happened just today when someone emailed me about...what was it?  I forget...

Did I tell you what happens when I ask people to address points A and B?  It's about the Attention Deficit Society....

Labor Day, and Engagement's Missing Ingredient

Labor Day reminds me that although the unemployed would be happy with any kind of job, meaningful work is a key to employee engagement and satisfaction.  Meaningful work is the difference between a job you do just for the paycheck, and the job you look forward to every day. 

As Fyodor Dostoevsky said, "Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad."  Ok, maybe they won't go mad, but they certainly will be mad.  Mad at their plight, at their bosses, at their companies.  And angry people just don't do the best work.

That's why leaders should be doing everything they can to provide "meaningful" work.  No matter how menial the work may be, it's up to the leaders to show the employees the connection between the work (the tasks and activities) and the noble purpose. 

Somehow that work makes the world a better place, and leaders need to uncover this purpose, and focus the employees on it.

As I've said before, that purpose usually involves serving the customer.  The work makes the world a better place by serving customers, solving customers' problems, making the customers' worlds better places.  When employees focus on this, employees' worlds become better places.

So this Labor Day, commit to making every day a celebration of meaningful work, and employee engagement.  Ask yourself some questions:  What are you doing to provide meaningful work?  How are you connecting the job tasks and activities to the grand or noble purpose?