Pay Attention to Me! How the Attention Economy Impacts Your Work
THE SCARCITY OF ATTENTION: If you have not heard of the attention economy you probably will. Although the term has been around since the 80s, adopted by a theoretical physicist named Michael Goldhaber, commentators have increasingly applied the term to describe all kinds of ways that we exchange not money, but attention. Attention has become a thing of value because we each have only so much of it.
INFORMATION POLLUTION: We have all felt buried: that sense of information
overload because there is simply too much information out there and we are drowning in content. We have a challenging time deciding how to spend that precious resource of our own attention.
EXCHANGING ATTENTION: At one point in human history, land made a person wealthy, then money, but now we frequently assess a person’s worth – including at work – by how much attention they can attract. Attention comes in many forms: love, recognition, heeding, obedience, thoughtfulness, caring, praising, watching over, attending to one’s desires, aiding, advising, critical appraisal, assistance in developing new skills, et cetera. Increasingly, we spend our attention online with gossip, debate, and learning. As Goldhaber and others have emphasized, the Internet is rewiring our brains, especially when we look at attention.
What Should You Do?
BUDGET ATTENTION: Because most of us (other than Jeff Bezos) have a finite amount of money, we watch where our money goes: creating a budget, analyzing where we save and spend. Look at your limited amount of attention in the same way. Budget your attention so that you do not squander this limited resource.
LEADERS AND ATTENTION: If you are a leader, realize that your attention to those you manage may be even more important to them than a raise. Make sure that you consider the focus of your attention and which people, places and things are truly worth your time and energy. You should consider squandering or mismanaging your attention to be as big a mistake as a budget blunder. As every misbehaving child knows, negative attention may be better than no attention at all, but will criticizing those you lead create the result you want?
PAY ATTENTION TO WHERE YOU PAY ATTENTION: Your staff, family, advertisers, Twitter feed, and your latest Netflix binge are all clamoring for your attention. Make sure that you are conscious about where your awareness lands, rather than responding automatically to the loudest voice.
For more ideas about how you allocate attention, go to: https://www.workplacesthatwork.com/whats-the-most-important-thing-on-your-to-do-list/
These and other meeting ideas are addressed in all our leadership and management workshops – live and online.
Call or write us at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com
Coaching and webinars on these and other management and leadership topics can all be delivered virtually.
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Read Lynne’s book “We Need to Talk – Tough Conversations with Your Employee” and learn to tackle every topic with sensitivity and smarts.
February 8, 2021
