You’ve most likely heard about the year when the goldfish outperformed the human in a competition for the longest attention span.
According to research, not only did the human average attention span decrease by 25% in just 15 years, but it’s now only 8.25 seconds compared to the goldfish which came in at 9.
Some of the best peak performance experts and also personal friends of mine, Steven Kotler, Director and Rian Doris, CEO of The Flow Research Collective have a body of research that highlights just how big this problem is:
- The average knowledge worker is only productive for 2.3 hours per day
- They check their email 36 times per hour
- They’re interrupted 56 times per day
- They waste 36 hours in unnecessary meetings a month
And most devastating of all: the average knowledge worker is interrupted every 11 minutes (and it takes up to 23 minutes to get back into focus after disruption). Add to the distractions, the the incredible amount of information the average human processes per day.
Our attention is the conduit that connects us to our life and work, to what’s happening in this moment.
When our attention is divided our connection with our world is weakened - we get less of the world and the world gets less of us. When focused the door to flow opens.
"Flow" ,a term first coined in the '70s and often associated with athletes, is "an optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best," according to Kotler.
🔒This Week's Latch Unlock: how to beat the goldfish in the game of focus
So if focused attention brings flow - how can we get more of our team’s attention lasered in on what’s most important - especially in Latch?
Tip #1: Grab your iphone and record an “ugly” video
Video can hold the dwindling human attention span, allowing for a stronger connection between executives and employees, according to Peter Lynch, TEDx speaker and former Fortune 500 executive.
He says the best videos for engagement are authentic, raw and unpolished; that the “ugly” video keeps attention longer than the refined content. Afterall, “Authenticity is the foundation of trust,”
We're cooking up a pilot program: In response to the camera phobia some of our clients have, we’ve partnered with long-time friend Gerry Sandusky with the Sandusky Group to help increase influence and confidence - whether it’s on video or in front of the room.
🖐️Raise your hand if you're interested.
Tip#2:Ask thought provoking questions and encourage honest answers
Recently we did a User Feedback study which was a 6-part study that included us looking at a random sampling of user patterns, and we observed that:
People engage more when they feel psychologically safe.
Feeling safe shows up in the quality and quantity of comments. For most clients it takes some time for the comments to go from one-liners like “thank you for sharing your story” to more in depth, thoughtful, and honest responses…which encourages more and more responses, a flourishing feed.
Good questions captivate attention and cultivate curiosity.
Latch is a “closed loop” feedback flywheel system because it gives information in the form of a video and then asks for insights in the form of reflect and act prompts.
The user data we studied showed that end users are spending time reading through the comments of their peers (even if they aren't commenting themselves).
And even more compelling is that of those that submitted at least a reflect, they spent up to 19.43 minutes on Latch.
What else holds people’s attention for 19.43 minutes? Not email - that’s for sure.
⏱️19 minutes compared to 9 seconds ➡️ looks like your team is giving the goldfish a beat down in the game of focus.
🙌That's what we call a Latch Unlock.🙌
If you managed to make it to the end of this without getting distracted by your phone, slack notifications, the neighbor’s dog, or your cat clawing at your couch:
- Give yourself a high five! You’re a focus superstar which is rare 👏
- Thank you🙏And as a thank you, we'd like to send you a copy of "Understanding Understanding" - it's a killer coffee table book and I think you'll dig it.
