Shifting a bit from “words we throw around a lot,” this week, there was an article written in the Sunday Review section of the New York Times, February 7th, 2021, by a man named Charlie Warzel that really got our attention as it relates to FIG. Warzel talks about his interview with Michael Goldhaber, who, in the 1980s, “outlined the demands of living in an attention economy, describing an ennui that didn’t yet exist but now feels familiar to anyone who makes a living online….. “His epiphany was this: One of the most finite resources in the world is human attention. To describe its scarcity, he latched onto what was then an obscure term, coined by a psychologist, Herbert A. Simon: ‘the attention economy.’” We’re really and truly sorry to disabuse you of the notion that we are able to multitask effectively. Sadly, study after study proves otherwise. “When you pay attention to one thing, you ignore something else.” Goldhaber prophesied.
So! May we beg your attention for the next few minutes?
Short attention spans, lack of focus, “shiny objects,” no “time” to initiate, develop, nurture and sustain relationships, professional or otherwise, time to think about intentionality, time to think about boundaries, professionally or for self or self care, time to think about paying attention. The fact that there are SO many pulls on our time and the desire to accomplish so much are examples of an attention economy. We’ve talked about our “immediate gratification society:” we have the ability to and are often so busy jumping from task to task, email to email, meeting to meeting - Zoom or otherwise - text to text, DM’s to DM’s, that we fail to give our attention to any one thing at any one time: alarming musings indeed when thinking about actually paying attention……
We are deeply and genuinely sorry to share these bits of news, dear readers, but the truth is: the mere presence of a cell phone, even one which is face down, tells the person you’re with they do not have your undivided attention. At meetings, checking your emails, texts or social media feeds while someone else is speaking means you’re not concentrating on either 100%. Speaking on the phone or texting while driving, well, apart from being insanely dangerous (because you have what could accurately described as a 1 ton weapon in your control or lack thereof), due to distraction, listening to a podcast or audio book while out on a walk enjoying some much needed vitamin D, means you’re not paying attention to your surroundings, the landscape, the air or your breath - you’re not “present” in the walk. If you bring your phone with you to yoga class (if they’ll let you!), you’re not practicing exactly what you’re there to accomplish: mindfulness, presence and focus.
Let's face it, some of the time, it’s absolutely fine not to be fully present, fully engaged, slightly distracted and frankly, some of these times don’t warrant our undivided attention, which brings us around to some of FIG’s favorite questions: what do you want? How do you want to engage? How do you want to focus and pay attention? What are your priorities? Where do you want or need to spend your time? Conversely, how do you want to be received? How do you want to present yourself professionally? How do you want to be perceived by others, particularly those important to you in business? Do you want to be viewed as an engaged, thoughtful, focused participant while interacting with others? Or do you want to be viewed as a “very very busy,” “very important” person with SO many things to do you can’t be bothered to pay attention to any one thing or person?
Look, most of you know that FIG is honestly and sincerely an objective, non-judgemental third party observer of behavior; we live and breathe this conceptually and in practice. We’ve said it before and will continue to say: by all means, ‘you do you’. We do ask, however, that we try to be aware of what we’re doing and why, understand the consequences of our conduct and actions, mitigating the negative ones, celebrating the positives and remembering there IS a reason for everything and every behavior.
A note from this author: I will absolutely confess to struggling with the urge not to check the 20+ emails which came in while writing this piece, really, really, and brilliantly ironic given the subject. I eschewed the temptation because you all are important and deserve my undivided focus through my words.
I’ll end with a last thought from Warzel’s piece: “His biggest worry, though, is that we still mostly fail to acknowledge that we live in a roaring attention economy.” (Goldhaber) “In other words, we tend to ignore his favorite maxim, from the writer Howard Rheingold: ‘Attention is a limited resource, so pay attention to where you pay attention.’” (Warzel)
So, where do you want your attention to lie?
We encourage you to read Charlie Warzel’s full article, if you have the time and inclination. It’s an important piece, but it will take you about 15 minutes 😏. ttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/opinion/michael-goldhaber-internet.html
Until next time……..