Attention deficit and the impacts of multi-tasking have been themes on this blog for a while now. It all started with me thinking about whether it is possible to have a “strong” brain, and whether it was possible to do things to exercise your brain and make it “stronger”. Along the way I came across the issue of attention deficit trait and the impact of multi-tasking.

Walter Kirn has written a fascinating article on the impact of multi-tasking. It starts with this bold statement:

Neuroscience is confirming what we all suspect: Multitasking is dumbing us down and driving us crazy. One man’s odyssey through the nightmare of infinite connectivity.

It even gives some wonderful statistics on the impact:

Six hundred and fifty billion dollars. That’s what we might call our National Attention Deficit, according to Jonathan B. Spira, who’s the chief analyst at a business- research firm called Basex and has estimated the per annum cost to the economy of multitasking-induced disruptions. (He obtained the figure by surveying office workers across the country, who reported that some 28 percent of their time was wasted dealing with multitasking- related transitions and interruptions.)

But the real joy in this article is the story that surrounds all of the information, and for that, you need to read the article.

One of the reasons I am writing this post is that I had planned to work from home today because I need to get my head around some thing. Working from home normally allows me to blank out everything and focus in on the core task. Unfortunately my neighbour has started some building work today and the trucks keep reversing up the cul-de-sac with those annoying reversing warnings blaring away. However much I try to focus in on the important thing, the distractions keep coming, and you can only turn the quiet music up so load. There’s no point in me trying to get my head around the task that is ahead of me because I will just get distracted, try to regain my thought, get distracted, get frustrated, and on and on.

If this post comes to you as an interruption – sorry, but it’s really your fault for not turning off the notification on whatever reader you are using. You are allowed to turn things off you know.

(Jimmy and Grandad are watching Mr. Benn at the National Media Museum in Bradford. One of the attractions of the museum is to be able to go into one section, choose a programme from the archives and show your kids what television was like when you were a kid. We were all surprised how slow Mr. Benn was. Another sign of the impact we are having on our brains.)

Following on from yesterday’s post on Learning Agility I was interested to find an article by Bill Gates on the BBC today about “The skills you need to succeed“:

Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs.

I also place a high value on having a passion for ongoing learning. When I was pretty young, I picked up the habit of reading lots of books.

It’s great to read widely about a broad range of subjects. Of course today, it’s far easier to go online and find information about any topic that interests you.

Having that kind of curiosity about the world helps anyone succeed, no matter what kind of work they decide to pursue.

It’s very easy to become one dimensional, curiosity is a great way of becoming and staying multi-dimensional.

The other day I realised how much personal development stuff I had done this year. So I’ve decided that it’s time to assimilate some of it, rather than just learn it.

Starting with the one that I did most recently, and have assimilated the least – learning agility. This is based on the Lominger book – FYI for Talent Management.

As a quick introduction here’s an extract from the start of the book:

Talent is usually considered the people who are in the upper 10 percent of what they do. What separates the best from the rest who perform well? To be good at anything requires some knowledge, skills, and technical know how. Both the best and the rest have that. One thing that separates the best from the rest is the ability to adjust, adapt, respond to, and be resourceful in the face of change.

….

Regardless of how intelligent or technically skilled you are, the best way to increase your talent score or effectiveness is to improve you learning agility. Relatively unrelated to intelligence (also good to have), learning agility is basically how well you adapt to the new and different.

The book then goes on to split learning agility into four areas, each with a set of learning themes.

On a quick assessment there weren’t really any surprises to me.

The four areas are:

• Mental agility
• People agility
• Change agility
• Results agility

Anyone who knows me would guess the top – mental agility where I came out above the 99th percentile. The only surprise was how high this was, it’s nice to have it affirmed though.

After that the other three are quite close between the 75th and 90th percentile.

Getting into the themes.

My strengths are:

• Critical thinker
• Inquisitive
• Solution finder
• Agile communicator
• Personal learner

Again, no surprises there and reinforcement for previous assessments.

Onto the “to be worked on” section. The areas where I came out weaker were as follows:

• Cool transactor
• Light touch
• People smart
• Presence

Each of these areas then has a set of remedies and recommendations. I’ve picked out a few things that I am going to try and do. I’m not going to detail them here just yet, we’ll see how I get on with them first.

I do feel a bit like I’ve come back to the beginning of a journey, because learning agility is almost where I started from in August 2006.