Corporate Attention Deficit Disorder

[Michael Kanazawa]

Are you seeing a trend in what may be best described as "Corporate A.D.D."? This looks like constantly resetting direction, not staying with anything long enough to see it through, not setting priorities, running everything as a fire drill, and simply doing too much at one time. This operating mode makes people feel overwhelmed, out of control, marginalized, and ineffective. The result, employees disengage.

Are you seeing this issue in your work as well? Maybe in your own life?

[David Zinger]

Micheal,
Yes on both counts. I start charging ahead, forget what I am charging ahead to, and end up going in a new direction. I loved Ed Hallowell's book on Crazy Busy. He worked with ADD children. He said far too many of us when asked how we are doing respond with the reply, "busy or crazy busy." His major antidote: stay connected with what matters most and you can't have too many things that matter most. The implications become obvious but tough when we have so many choices.

[Michael Kanazawa]

David - The tough part for sure is learning how to not get distracted by the next new thing to "matter most" as you say. That's a discipline needed in a lot of organizaitons, yet also needs to be balanced with the need to change when the world changes around you. I certainly haven't mastered it yet either.

Mike

[Judy McLeish]

Michael, what a wonderful term and how true it is! We consult to several clients where we see constant shifts in management agendas and priorities which leaves employees feeling powerless and ineffective. I would absolutely agree with you that companies with shifting priorities will have a harder time both engaging employees and keeping the best talent.

Judy

[Michael Kanazawa]

Judy - Are there any specific techniques you use to coach people to better deal with or try to manage the shifting management agendas? Our approach is to narrow the corporate focus to no more than three major strategic initiatives at any given time. Then, have all organizations and individuals set their goals and plans to deliver on those three.

Mike

[Michael Lee Stallard]

Michael,

Just yesterday I spoke with a former colleague of mine on wall Street about the high rate of management turnover on the Street these days. It's another manifestation of ADD-like behavior. I find ADD, hypo-manic cultures are counterproductive. When everyone feels like they have to look super-busy for cya reasons, reflection and ultimately effectiveness suffer.

On the home front, when I feel like I'm exceeding my personal speed limit, I take my foot off the accelerator. Past experience has taught me that life is a marathon with periodic sprints. Running full-out too often puts me in a rhythm where I'm insensitive to relationships. Anyone else feel that way?

[Michael Kanazawa]

Michael - Trying to look super busy and checking the boxes on tasks is definitely the worst minifestation of all of this overload. It makes me believe that even after all of the core process reengineering, cost cutting and "right-sizing" of the last two decaeds that there is still huge upside potential in businesses who can truly engage their people.

Mike

[Sean RN]

I unfortunately LIVE in this 'virtual' world of "crazy busy". I am a nurse working at a large community hospital, so this is the norm for me. But I do see how this can detract from the give task(s) at hand.
In my own life.. I do just the opposite. My life outside of work... is my 'down-time'.
I'd like to think given my line of work.. I handle the re-prioritizing and re-direction very well, since most of the time it is beyond my control and out of my hands.
"Going with the Flow"

[Michael Kanazawa]

Sean - Working in crisis mode and triage all the time is really stressful. It definitely takes special people to do that and glad to hear you can find down time. Someone in this group wrote a book about leveraging lessons from the aloha spirit in Hawaii at work. That seems like an interesting topic to help go with the flow.

Mike

[Nels Pedersen]

Michael,
I think you've identified one of the major stumbling blocks to corporate success. I believe one of the big contributors to this is the trend towards focusing on very short term measures and results - a definite impact of the instant gratification mindset of certain parts of Wall Street. This leads to poor strategic planning and execution, and a willingness to try the flavor of the month, rather than invest in what is best for the long term health and growth of that particular organization. Employees can only pay attention for so long before they decide that the next new thing is just that.

- Nels Pedersen

[Michael Kanazawa]

Nels,

You really get the full picture of how this plays out in companies. Thanks for adding these details in this conversation.

Mike

[Jay Cross]

I'm brand new here and know it's usually not wise to hop right in before learning the community culture, but I can't resist. Yes, I see the confusion and short attention span of corporate citizens. We're in tumultuous times. If you don't feel a bit out of it, you don't see what's going on.

But ADD? I don't think so. Corporations might be better off following in the footsteps of ADDers like Ansel Adams, Beethoven, Andrew Carnegie, Lewis Carroll, Agatha Christie, Winston Churchill, Bill Cosby, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Ford, Ben Franklin, Galileo, Handel, William Randolph Hearst, Ernest Hemingway, Michael Jordan, JFK, RFK, John Lennon Abe Lincoln, Steve McQueen, Mozart, Napoleoin, Craig Newmark, Issac Newton, Pablo Picasso, Rodin, Babe Ruth, George Bernard Shaw, Socreates, Thoreau, Tolstoy, van Gogh, F.W. Woolworth, Frank Lloyd Wright, William Wrigley, Jr. Orville and Wilbur Wright, William Butler Yeats, and yours truly.

[Michael Kanazawa]

Jay,

Thanks for the dialogue. The artists, inventors and visionaries are absolutely necessary more today than ever. The problem that we see is that in many companies their ideas never have any impact because we jump so quickly from one concept to the next that nothing takes root and materializes.

Imagine if each day you had one of the leaders you mentioned at the helm of a large company where it felt like:

Day 1: Ford - we need to get to low cost, mass production - manufacturing focus is key
Day 2: Ansel Adams - we need to appreciate the beauty in the world around us - ergonomics, sustainability are key
Day 3: da Vinci - we need to innovate by looking across disciplines -
Day 4: Frank Lloyd Wright - we need to architect balance into the structure of the company itself
Day 5: Hemingway - we need to focus on how we communicate - deeper, with more meaning
Day 6: JFK - we need to activate every employee to give something of themselves to the whole (engagement!)
Day 7: John Lennon - we need to move towards unity as an organizaiton

That is what lack of focus and changing priorities feels like and it can leave the full organizaiton struggling to make any progress. Ford had a vision and created a singularly focused organization that may have been undermined if they also tried to take on all of the cuases of the other leaders you lised at the same time. It's about focus to create results.

Fighting Corporate A.D.D. is not about squelching wonderfully creative people. It is about making sure that there aren't full organizaitons of people who are ever chasing new ideas and never are able to bring any of those brilliant ideas to life.

I enjoyed reading your list of people. Very inspirational for all of us!