Coping with 'Attention Deficit'.

• Author: Motley, L. Biff
• Position: Techniques for managing time, information at work - Brief Article

Organizational Attention Deficit Disorder is a growing phenomenon in today's world of information overload. Dealing with it is a critical key to your success.

Information is being propagated and distributed at a gluttonous pace. The Internet and its brethren are unleashing huge quantities of valuable information to make our jobs more effective. This wonderful new technology, combined with advancements m MCIFs and other databases of marketing information, are overwhelming us. According to Tom Davenport, director of Accenture Institute for Strategic Change, "There is more information coming at us than we have the ability to absorb. Everything is going up except our ability to consume it all." The advent of e-mail and the Web are accelerating what Davenport calls "a poverty of attention." Attention, he maintains, is becoming one of our society's scarce resources. And it follows that those who are best able to manage it will be the winners.

Research conducted by the Institute of the Future in Palo Alto, Calif., into corporate employees indicates that nearly 33 percent feel overwhelmed by the volume of e-mails they get and do not have the time to respond. This situation creates stress and confusion over priorities. In light of corporate downsizing and other efforts to increase productivity, today's knowledge workers need a way to deal with the new pressures.

The problems for bank marketers lie on both sides of this equation. Not only do they have to manage their own attention, they have to grab and hold the attention of the bank's customers, who are also becoming overwhelmed with 200-channel TVs, PDAs, 24/7 cell phone access, the Internet, and now talking cars. Dennis Hinkle, a clinical psychologist, says, "For many, life has just become work-sleep, work-sleep, and home is just a pit stop."

The consultants at Accenture have developed an interesting interactive survey to measure a person's or group's attention and to begin to help manage it. You can take a look at www.attentionbook.com. The tool here helps catalogue a day's attention grabbers and better understand them. It is a precursor to better management of the attention resource.

If this scenario strikes a familiar chord, here are some tips. First, try to section off your day...