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Kevin Meyer is hosting the Management Improvement Carnival #76 on the Evolving Excellence blog, highlights include:
Read more management improvement carnivals
The problems with multitasking are becoming more and more well know, thankfully. Here is another article on the lower productivity multitasking produces – Multitasking Madness Decreases Productivity by Barbara Bartlein:
These findings are similar to those of David E. Meyer, a cognitive scientist and director of the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan. “Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes,” said Meyer. “Disruptions and interruptions are a bad deal from the standpoint of our ability to process information.”
…
“Many people delusionally believe they’re good at this,” he says. “The problem is that we only have one brain and it doesn’t work that way. In reality, nobody can effectively do more than one remotely complicated thing at a time.”
Related: The Siren Song of Multitasking – Multi-Tasking: Why Projects Take so Long – Flow (the opposite of multitasking)
I think these orders of magnitude are not present in between people in many jobs. And I think people’s ability to correctly access who are orders of magnitude better is often faulty. But my experience leads me to believe the difference between exceptional software developers and average (not even below average) is very high. High enough that large increases in pay (say tripling would be sensible). Also accommodating their desires is sensible: freedom from dealing with pointy haired bosses and eliminating other such de-motivators.
While salespeople seen as successful can often be rewarded very well, exceptional software developers rarely are. Most managers don’t seem to be able to grasp that software development is a rare field where such orders of magnitude differences are somewhat common (not one in a million, maybe one in a thousand for a random guess). There are other fields where this is true but most for most fields I do not think this is the case.
In many fields interruptions are costly (and multi-taking is wasteful). In software development those interruptions are often much more costly than in other fields. Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams is an excellent book on managing software development.
Related: People are Our Most Important Asset – Joy in Software Development – Hiring the Right People – Performance without Appraisal – Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations
In Loyal Employees Stay Home, quotes from the Wall Street Journal (behind a iron curtain still in this day and age – oh well):
I agree with the sentiment expressed here. And I speak from personal experience that it does make a big difference to me. I have trouble getting some of my work done in the interruption prone office. Working at home allows me some time to concentrate and focus with fewer interruptions (and ones easier to ignore if I really need to focus). If you wanted to hire me (given what I would be doing) and didn’t offer telecommuting options the odds of hiring me are not good.
Related: Five Pragmatic Practices – The Siren Song of Multitasking – Curious Cat Management Improvement Jobs – performance appraisal posts
Please submit your favorite management posts to the carnival. Read the previous management carnivals.
The Siren Song of Multitasking
Writes Mark, “This suggests a fairly high cognitive cost to resume work, as people are distracted by multiple other topics, and sometimes even nested interruptions. Our informants report that this can result in redundant work as they reorient.” Mark acknowledges that interruptions are often relevant to the work at hand, but notes that “reorientation” to the task comes at a cognitive cost. A report from Basex quantified the cost of interruptions. It found that the average knowledge worker loses 2.1 hours per day to “unimportant interruptions or distractions.”
Quite simply, people need the mental and physical space to think. In fact, the number-one predictor of job performance and satisfaction is the ability to concentrate in one’s own workplace. While work environments that include places for quiet, uninterrupted work as well as collaborative work can help a worker fight the urge to multitask, a worker’s ability to concentrate comes in part from being determined to concentrate.
via: The “multitasking” delusion
Related: Five Pragmatic Practices – Curious Cat management articles – Why Projects Take so Long – psychology related management posts
curiouscat.com > Curious Cat Management Improvement > Management Blog > Archive
Most popular posts – 2004 posts – 2005 – 2006 – 2008
December 2007 Detailed Monthly Archive
From a new, interesting, Theory of Constraint blog by Kevin Fox – Multi-Tasking: Why projects take so long and still go late
via: Silk and Spinach. Related: articles on Theory of Constraints – Multitasking is not Part of Standard Work – Flow – Fast Cycle Change in Knowledge-Based Organizations – single piece flow
Good is not almost as good as great by Seth Godin – “They understand what a customer wants. They’re not just better than good. They’re playing a totally different game.”
Great point (says John Hunter)
“Fire half your salesforce. Then, give the remainder, the top people, a big raise, and use the money left over to steal the best salespeople you can find”
Not a great point (John again), instead change your system to support the behaviors you want to encourage.
Becoming a Great Manager: Five Pragmatic Practices by Esther Derby 1) Decide What To Do and What Not To Do
2) Limit Multitasking
3) Keep People Informed
4) Provide Feedback
5) Develop People
I don’t see these as new ideas that have not been discussed before. But this article does a nice job of covering some good ideas. Taking the time to read this article can help remind you of some good practices you may neglect.
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