Focus (HBR Emotional Intelligence Series)

by Daniel Goleman

So does a video game called Tenacity, developed by a design group and neuroscientists. The game offers a leisurely journey through any of half a dozen scenes, from a barren desert to a fantasy staircase spiraling heavenward. At the beginner’s level you tap an iPad screen with one finger every time you exhale; the challenge is to tap two fingers with every fifth breath. As you move to higher levels, you’re presented with more distractions—a helicopter flies into view, a plane does a flip, a flock of birds suddenly scuds by.

In fact, mapping attention to power in an organization gives a clear indication of hierarchy: The longer it takes Person A to respond to Person B, the more relative power Person A has. Map response times across an entire organization, and you’ll get a remarkably accurate chart of social standing.

This is so predictable that an algorithm for it—called automated social hierarchy detection—has been developed at Columbia University.

To sustain the outward focus that leads to innovation, we need some uninterrupted time in which to reflect and refresh our focus.

in a small but significant number of people, a strong systems awareness is coupled with an empathy deficit—a blind spot for what other people are thinking and feeling and for reading social situations. For that reason, although people with a superior systems understanding are organizational assets, they are not necessarily effective leaders.

Focused leaders can command the full range of their own attention: They are in touch with their inner feelings, they can control their impulses, they are aware of how others see them, they understand what others need from them, and they can weed out distractions and also allow their minds to roam widely, free of preconceptions.

Start by using your self-awareness to help you notice several things:

Do a digital detox.9 In its 2017 Stress in America survey, The American Psychological Association (APA) found that “constant checkers”—people who check their emails, texts, and social media on a constant basis—experience more stress than those who don’t.

You begin by simply noticing that there are four phases of attention and distraction that happen every time you try to focus:

Cathy N. Davidson, “The History of Distraction, 4000 BCE to the Present,” blog post, November 13, 2011, http://www.cathydavidson.com/blog/the-history-of-distraction-4000-bce-to-the-present/

If you realize that checking news in the morning means that you’re upset and unfocused when you get to the office, tell yourself that you won’t catch up on world events until lunchtime.8

Two hours seems to be the right amount of time, she says. It gives her enough time to get deeply involved in a task, and it’s a “tolerable amount of time to be unreachable,” she says. “After that, people start to call back or email again.” Plus, it gives her a sense of urgency. “I have the adrenaline to get things done.”

So if you’re sitting there, putting something off because you don’t feel like doing it, remember that you don’t actually need to feel like it. There is nothing stopping you.

Even if you designate specific staff to be the front line to customers, you will have a problem if those staff members have to both receive the problems and solve them.

Research shows that people spend nearly 47% of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they’re doing.1

The DMN needs this energy because it is doing anything but resting. Under the brain’s conscious radar, it activates old memories; goes back and forth between the past, present, and future; and recombines different ideas.

Using positive constructive daydreaming (PCD)