January 23, 2013

Will your presentation pass the smartphone test?

smartphoneEver since the Blackberry invaded corporate meeting rooms, they and their successors have been an annoying distraction. Setting policies around use of devices, collecting them at the door, and other measures have tried to curb the effects of these devices. We’ve tried to stop attention from waning over the course of a discussion, from dissipating away from the matter at hand. But perhaps we’re treating the symptom instead of the problem.

When you’re in the presence of a good speaker doing a great talk, you’ll notice that nobody is checking smartphones. Heads are up and facing forward, focused on what’s happening right here, right now, in this room, in this moment. That’s the unique ability a live meeting offers – a chance to connect, to captivate, to gather and unleash energy.

Figuring out how to engage minds and focus energy and attention in this way isn’t easy, but it’s a worthwhile endeavor.

Photo credit: Buzz Farmers

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May 18, 2012

Herbert Simon Says

Herbert Simon Says, “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” And he’s right. Even though he said this long ago, way back in 1978 before this thing called the Internet started pervading all aspects of our daily lives.

Pioneering the field of attention economics, Simon rightly pointed out the emerging scarce resource of modern life – attention. As information content becomes more abundant, our ability to process it becomes severely constrained.

Think about it – you used to get letters in the mail, exchange memos (on paper!) at work, and select between 3 to 5 channels of television in the evening (before they went “off the air” at night – remember that?). Telephone calls and faxes inserted themselves into this otherwise calm and deliberate exchange of information, and by doing so they got attention. What’s interesting about phone and fax is that they got attention because of the transport mechanism itself rather than the value of the content.

Now, content is king. Your information must be relevant, interesting, and useful. Not only that, it must be timely, concise, and precise. Even then, you’re information is competing with a lot of other information of the same caliber, which is why building communities and relationships online is often a crucial factor of success. If you’re information comes from a known and trusted source, if it’s anticipated, if it’s helpful, it has a chance to break through. Which leads to an emerging concept that content really isn’t king – you’ve got to have that great content in the right context (this is a particularly powerful concept if you think about added aspect of mobile devices and individuals using multiple devices).

So, how will you garner attention for your [marketing project, IT initiative, next great idea]?

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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January 13, 2012

Drawing attention

The most precious commodity these days is attention. The age of information overload is well upon us and that’s obvious to everyone now. Which means that we’re taking a far more defensive posture against all that stuff that comes at us all day long.

It was always hard to get attention, but now it’s harder. It was always valuable to have someone’s attention, but we often squandered it.

And there are two types of attention, of course – the train wreck and the awesome thing. Most of the stuff in the middle doesn’t matter. It’s too mundane to get noticed, most of the time.

So, you can draw attention to yourself, your team, your project in one of two ways. You can create a train wreck – a spectacle of political infighting, poor craftsmanship, bad attitudes and ineffective outcomes. Or you can create something awesome – something that is new, innovative, and awe-inspiring.

Photo credit: Clearly Ambiguous

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December 5, 2011

Getting attention

It’s hard to get someone’s attention. Particularly a hurried New Yorker bustling through the city on foot or on bike. And particularly when it’s for a message about safety.

So, NYC is trying another angle – haiku traffic signs.

It’ll be interesting to see if this combination of clever images and poetry works. Hopefully it’s as successful as the mime-based safety campaign in Caracas, Venezuela.

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July 27, 2011

Google Plus and the lure of notifications

Which is worse – the notification alert that lures you back into Google+ because someone is circling you, mentioning you, or interacting with a post or comment of yours – or – the dull, grey notification bar with a big zero on it, reminding you that nobody is circling you, mentioning you, or interacting with a post or comment of yours?

The lure of notifications

Notifications can be hard to ignore, but they are terrible distractions. They take away something more important than time – they take away attention.

Paying attention to something, even for a split second, has a lingering effect – I wonder what that was? Maybe somebody liked my witty comment on that post from this morning? Maybe Suzi just joined Google+ and circled me. Or maybe someone shared that post I worked so hard to craft with just the right words.

All of this distracts from your task at hand, whatever that may be. It’s for this reason that a long time ago I shut off my email notifications for good. I haven’t looked back on that one yet, and don’t anticipate doing so.

The reach of Google+ notifications

What’s a little different about notifications on Google+ is that the controls are a bit more limited. Sure, you can turn off email notifications as well as notifications to your phone if you’re using the mobile client. But, that little box in the upper right hand corner of your web browser gives no quarter. Even when you’re not on the Google+ page, it’s still there – across all Google products – web, gmail, calendar, docs, photos, reader, and more!

That’s the significant difference of Google+ as a new communications platform for those of us who are already users of these other products (and there are at least about 200 million of us). And it’s in this way that I think Google+ will infiltrate our daily workflow in a way that other platforms like Facebook or Twitter didn’t and couldn’t. This thought resonates with another idea that is worth some consideration – that social media will at some point cease to exist as a standalone product or platform and simply become a feature of computing in the future. That’s getting a little ahead of ourselves, but you get the idea.

There may be some respite for the weary

There is a browser extension (Hide Google+ Notification) that promises to remove the notification from the global Google header toolbar for all pages except Google+ itself, but it’s only for Chrome users. Maybe more will follow for other browsers, or maybe Google will offer this as a configuration option (don’t hold your breath). But for now, you may need to avoid Google properties if you don’t want to be distracted by the notifications. Of course, this may prove to be about as easy as avoiding all discussion of your favorite TV show until you watch the recording when you get home.

The immediacy of the social web

The pace of social media is different. And for all of the talk about Google+ competing with Facebook, it also has some of the real-time feel of Twitter. This may increase as newer users are drawn into this pace by the notification bar, and continue to up the pace overall. Tempering all that activity with circles will surely be a minimum requirement over time.

 

 

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June 20, 2011

Kicking habits, and forming new ones

While reading Mike Gilronan’s blog post about the good and ill effects of the ban of all electronic devices by attendees at the US Open Championship this weekend, the most striking observation was this one:

A profusion of what looked like spasms from people continually and reflexively patting their pockets or groping for an absent belt-holstered phone.

The level of connectedness we enjoy in today’s smartphone, always-on, world of Internet ubiquity provides us with a wealth of opportunities. We can obtain, create, and share information easily and instantly. And there’s always a new application or platform making that experience easier, better, and more valuable.

So the where, when and how we choose to use it requires some consideration. Habits form easily, and are hard to change.

But they can change.

Dropping an old habit

As you install new applications, upgrade old ones, and adopt new devices, you’ve got to constantly re-evaluate your personal strategy. And sometimes what you decide may impact some old, well-established habits.

A while back, I wrote about my experience in disabling email popup notices on my PC. Eliminating those popups during times when I needed to concentrate on getting work done was very effective. So effective, in fact, that I ended up leaving them turned off all the time. And now I am very much in the habit of never seeing them, and never missing them. Dropping that habit was good for me.

The smartphone, of course, is a bit trickier.

If the only camera you have at the family Bar-B-Q is on your smartphone, chances are you’re going to be checking email, Twitter, etc. while you’re there. If you’d rather avoid that, bring a second camera.

Of course, if you like to post those photos to Facebook for everyone in the family to share, then the smartphone becomes crucial. With it you can post real-time updates easily, which is much more effective than uploading batches of photos from a disconnected camera days after an event has occurred.

So, what’s your strategy? And how often does it need to be revised? Maybe for a variety of scenarios…

Car mode

My smartphone (an Andriod) has an application for car mode. When enabled, the entire interface has only six big buttons on it. They are easy to see and use, and provide access to only a few functions, those most likely to be used in the car. This limited access makes the device easier to use for those select functions.

Maybe the help we need to manage smartphones more effectively lies somewhere in this area – a customizable golf mode, party mode, lunch mode, whatever. Still, technology can only get us so far in managing its use. We’d have to take the time to configure and enable those modes.

Ultimately, we need to direct our attention to strategy, make choices, and change habits.

Photo credit: waferbaby

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