To Multitask Effectively, Focus on Value, Not Volume - Conversation Starter - HarvardBusiness.org

To Multitask Effectively, Focus on Value, Not Volume - Conversation Starter - HarvardBusiness.org

Harvard Publishing >

To Multitask Effectively, Focus on Value, Not Volume >
9:12 AM Thursday September 10, 2009 >by Ron Ashkenas >

Excerpts: >

Now a study from researchers at Stanford University suggests that my concerns may have been well-founded. The study conclusions, reported in the Aug. 24 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are unambiguous: "Multitaskers were just lousy at everything," according to Clifford I. Nass, a professor of communication at Stanford and one of the study's investigators.

Despite starting the research on 100 college students with the hypothesis that multitaskers had some special abilities, the study found that multitaskers were actually quite ineffective at managing information, maintaining attention, and getting results. Compared to study participants who did things one task at a time, they were mediocre. >

While a single study of 100 students doesn't prove anything definitively, it does reinforce what many of us have probably suspected - that trying to do too many things at once often means getting none of them done well. >

In organizations however, the implication is much more pernicious because individual performance, for better or worse, is multiplied and amplified many times over. If dozens of people are reducing their effectiveness by multitasking, then the organization runs the risk of being tied up in knots. >

Before you turn in your Blackberry and refuse the next big organizational project however, let me suggest that the alternative to multitasking is not single-tasking. In this day and age, that would be too slow. Rather the answer is to shift our mindsets from a focus on volume to a focus on value. Instead of checking off all the boxes and trying to get everything done, let's identify those activities and initiatives that will truly add value. It's OK not to do certain things, or to do them later. >

We all have choices to make, as individuals and as managers of organizations. What can you do to make sure that those choices are based on value rather than volume? >

Read full post: http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/09/to_multitask_effectively_focus.html# >

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http://dreamlearndobecome.blogspot.com This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.