A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

I’ve always believed that the ability to multitask is destructive, a crock or, at best, wishful thinking, as I’ve said more than once.

Of course, I’m frequently told that multitasking is the only way to function and that if I were younger I would understand that, blah, blah.

Founders and startup people are especially likely to tell me my advice to focus is dinosaurian, so I’m delighted every time I read the same comments from experts, such as Y Combinator partner Sam Altman,

“For whatever reasons, many founders love to spend time on anything else—worrying about the details of corporate structures, interviewing lawyers, doing a really good job bookkeeping, etc.  All of this pretending-to-run-a-company gets in the way of actually running a company.”

And recent research from Stanford University on the impact of heavy media consumption.

Results showed that heavy media multitaskers  are more susceptible to interference from irrelevant environmental stimuli and from irrelevant representations in memory. This led to the surprising result that heavy media multitaskers performed worse on a test of task-switching ability, likely due to reduced ability to filter out interference from the irrelevant task set.

I’m not going to write more, because I would rather you read Altman, Stanford and my old posts and the links in them—I’m sure their opinion will carry more weight.

However, I’m doubtful it will make a difference, since most people consume stuff they don’t want to know through a “but me” filter.

Image credit: HikingArtist

I frequently write about the importance of self-awareness, knowing yourself, understanding your MAP  and looking in the mirror for solutions when problems arise, instead of assuming the cause and its fix are external.

In the 1970s, Chris Argyris, a business theorist at Harvard Business School started researching the effect of obstacles on organizations and people and found two distinct responses.

Professor Argyris called the most common response single loop learning — an insular mental process in which we consider possible external or technical reasons for obstacles.

LESS common but vastly more effective is the cognitive approach that Professor Argyris called double-loop learning. In this mode we question every aspect of our approach, including our methodology, biases and deeply held assumptions.

While finding the answers within, instead of without, is the subject of a new book, it will take more than a book about high achievers to induce people to look inside first instead of as a last resort.

Why is looking inside so difficult for most people?

Probably because it requires an objective, no-holds-barred, nothing-is-sacred look at every opinion, thought and assumption we have.

It is a concentrated effort that can’t be done while multitasking or in-between games of Angry Birds.

In many ways this kind of intense self-assessment plays against current social norms and, for many, even how they were raised.

So the question becomes, is the gain worth the pain?

It is if what you really want are solutions to problems and success in your endeavors.

Flickr image credit: Siri Spjelkavik

No, not the buzz of social media, but the buzz in open office environments.
These days companies spend both time and money creating and managing the buzz of social networks—more every year—with varying degrees of success.

But only the most perceptive are recognizing the need to manage the noise level, especially of conversations, whether on cell phones or between colleagues, in open office environments.

“The noisemakers aren’t so bothered by the lack of privacy, but most people are not happy, and designers are finally starting to pay attention to the problem.” –John Goins

Studies have proved over and over that human brains can’t multitask and that doing so reduces competency on all tasks; of even more concern is reduced productivity.

Researchers at Finland’s Institute of Occupational Health have studied precisely how far those conversations carry and analyzed their effect on the unwilling listener: a decline of 5 percent to 10 percent on the performance of cognitive tasks requiring efficient use of short-term memory, like reading, writing and other forms of creative work.

Most people actually tune out conversation-blocking background noise like music for focus-intensive work such as writing, but conversations are a different matter.

Noise is not conducive to creativity.

“Noise is the most serious problem in the open-plan office, and speech is the most disturbing type of sound because it is directly understood in the brain’s working memory,” said Valtteri Hongisto, an acoustician at the institute. He found that workers were more satisfied and performed better at cognitive tasks when speech sounds were masked by a background noise of a gently burbling brook.

Autodesk got the message and installed what is known as a pink-noise system in its Massachusetts offices.

Pink-noise provides a soft whooshing over loudspeakers that sounds like a ventilation system but is specially formulated to match the frequencies of human voices.

To test its validity they turned it off after three months and the complaints poured in.

“We were surprised at how many complaints we got,” said Charles Rechtsteiner, Autodesk’s facilities manager. “People weren’t sure what was different, but they knew something was wrong. They were being distracted by conversations 60 feet away. When the system’s on, speech becomes unintelligible at a distance of about 20 feet.”

Whether your company recognizes the problem or not, there are many things that you can do in your area to avoid noise-related productivity loss.

The first is to make sure that you are not part of the problem, because you will change no one else’s actions with a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do approach.

Next, talk to your team; find the problems and work together to alleviate them as opposed to assigning blame to a few gabby colleagues.

Flickr image credit: debaird™

Way back in 2006 I was preaching the value of unwiring and I’ve written often on the fallacy of multitasking and the resultant diminishing productivity and creativity.

A new post at HBR is titled The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time and connects the always-on, multitasking approach to high burn-out levels in the workforce.

What we’ve lost, above all, are stopping points, finish lines and boundaries. Technology has blurred them beyond recognition. Wherever we go, our work follows us, on our digital devices, ever insistent and intrusive. It’s like an itch we can’t resist scratching, even though scratching invariably makes it worse.

Of nearly 500 comments, almost all of those I scanned were in agreement.

83% of the US population owns a cell and nearly half of them are smartphones, but there are unlikely holdouts.

Nicholas Carr, author of “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” argues in the book that because of the brain’s neuroplasticity, Web surfing rewires people to be more adept at perfunctory multitasking, but diminishes the ability to sustain focus and think interpretatively.

It’s not just an age thing; younger users voice similar concerns.

Jim Harig, 24, a senior evaluation analyst at Ernst & Young in Chicago… Mr. Harig said he worried about distractibility and regarded most applications as time wasters instead of productivity boosters. “I don’t want to end up falling victim to the smartphone, where I dive in and get lost for hours at a time.”

There is enormous peer pressure on both topics—multitasking has become a competitive sport (watch for the first World Multitasking Championship) as have smartphones—and peer pressure is no easier to combat as an adult than it was as a teen.

However, you do have a choice and, hopefully, your choice will reflect your long-term health and success as opposed to the short-term goal of fitting in or being cool.

Flickr image credit: Lisa Risager

Entrepreneurs have a lot on their minds; they’re famous for multitasking; they’re usually shorthanded; they wear many hats and do whatever is necessary to turn their vision into a reality.

Few admit it, but with all this action stuff is bound to slip through the cracks now and then.

The trick is to be sure that what slips isn’t critical.

Of course, it still happens—even to big companies with lots of people to focus on the details.

Stuff slips because everyone thinks it’s in someone else’s job description or because it’s so basic and so important that there’s a subconscious assumption that it’s been taken care of.

Stuff such as domain registration.

Hard to believe, but domain lapse* seems to happen to everybody from super-hot startups, Foursquare in 2010, to government, New Jersey Transit in 2011.

An early casualty was Hotmail in 1999, while Disney’s Club Penguin was just last week.

The Washington Post and Gawker made 2004 the year for both old and new media to slip.

There’s a simple, low-tech solution to avoiding critical slips; it won’t stop them all slips, but it will stop critical.

It’s called a whiteboard, but the trick is not to use dry erase pens.

Instead use a permanent marker and list nothing on it except critical items, such as domain renewal dates.

Identifying what goes on the board is simple, too.

“Critical stuff” encompasses those things without which there is no company.

*Source: Bloomberg Business Week, June 27, 2011 (print edition)

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28288673@N07/4848301878/

If she is looking over your shoulder at a room full of potentially more interesting people, she is ill-mannered. If, however, she is not looking over your shoulder, but into a smartphone in her hand, she is not only well within modern social norms, but is also a wired, well-put-together person.

Obviously, I’m not well-put-together.

Meet me and you’ll know instantly that I am the proud possessor of antique manners, as opposed to the digital kind.

• I pay attention to people while talking with them, as opposed to scanning the room for someone more interesting, i.e., useful.
• I really listen to what they are saying.
• I don’t text as we talk.
• I don’t check email, make dinner reservations, surf, etc. during our conversation.

This is as true when I talk on the phone as when I attend a networking event or social function.

The body of brain research that proves the only thing multitasking achieves is to make you incompetent grows daily.

It’s just not how our brains were built.

My ‘old-fashion’ focus has many benefits chief of which is people remember me weeks, months and even years later when all we had was a 30 second conversation.

Think about it.

When was the last time that someone gave you their completely undivided attention for 30 seconds or longer?

When was the last time you gave someone yours?

Fickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedbee/103147140/

It’s the first Monday of the month and that means lots of great links to leadership information courtesy of the monthly Leadership Development Carnival, hosted this month by Mary Jo Asmus along with Becky Robinson’s Leadership Roundup.

October Leadership Development Carnival: Autumn Fun Edition

Cheer for your favorite players from the Big Ten:

Our regular referee for the carnival positions himself in the backfield today, but will return for the next game in November. Dan McCarthy of Great Leadership announces a penalty in Individual Development Plans are Worthless….if No Action is Taken.

Steve Roesler at All Things Workplace plays defense to those who think there isn’t a place for emotions in the workplace with Emotions, Work and Engaged Employees.

Jane Perdue of Get Your Leadership Big On! is on Steve’s team as she carries the ball toward the goal line with Do Feelings Have a Place in Business?

Becky Robinson at LeaderTalk inspires us with a rarely seen drop kick in Measuring Results. She deserves a game ball for this beautiful play.

Wally Bock at the Three Star Leadership Blog teaches us that We’ve got Leaders. What We Need is Leadership. Thanks for the wisdom, coach!

Bret Simmons takes us into sudden death overtime as we reflect on the importance of self management in leaders: Prudence: An Undervalued Virtue of Leadership.

Tanveer Nasseer helps leaders’ to protect their blind side with tips on how to ease someone back into the team after an absence in Helping Employees Regain Their Productivity After A Prolonged Absence .

Gwyn Teatro of You’re Not The Boss of Me plays quarterback as she leads discussion of the next play in the huddle with Managing and Leading….Lessons from Gilbert and Sullivan .

Mark Stelzner of Inflexion Advisors reflects on a winning organizational team that made it to the Workplace Super Bowl in The Best Company I’ve Ever Worked For .

Jennifer Miller of The People Equation scores a touchdown by showing us research that dispels a multitasking fantasy in Great Leaders Don’t Multitask. Your fans are cheering you on, Jennifer!

Take a fall color tour:

Jason Seiden of Fail Spectacularly! provides a colorful dialog of how magical our world is and what curiosity can do to foster creativity in Science Discovers Couples Share 6^th Sense.

Miki Saxon of MAPping Company Success reminds us that managers need to mind their unconscious reactions in order to have creativity flourish in its splendor in Fostering Creativity.

Bret Simmons at LeaderLab takes us beyond the blue sky of servant leadership and gives it strong roots by describing research and practical tips for embedding its practice in Servant Leadership in the Workplace.

Steve Boese of Steve Boese’s HR Technology shows how quickly small acorns can grow into the mighty oaks of an ‘A’ Team in Quick – Send in the ‘B’ Team

Michael Lee Stallard entices us to take a break on our tour…er, journey…. and ponder The Pride Paradox.

Thomas Waterhouse on the Lead Change Group blog discusses the many facets and colors of trust in A Trusting Character.

Sylvia Lafair takes us on a tour of boss-bashing, showing us the many shades of how it becomes nasty and public in Bad Boss Revolution.

Paul Knudstrup, of The 8 Essential Skills is driving on tour right behind Sylvia with a nod toward managers who are doing the right things in Employers and Employees.

Kevin Grossman at the Glowan Consulting Group helps us to consider the changing nature of what it takes to make it in the workforce these days in Adaptability, Inc. is hiring. I wish I would have told him that.

Nick McCormick at Joe and Wanda on Management provides us with an auditory bit of fresh autumn air with an interview on Managing Your Boss with Bob Seldon.

Enjoy the Autumn Harvest:

Barry Zweibel at GottaGettaBLOG! harvests some disengagement statistics in A Manager’s Focus Matters.

Benjamin McCall’s thoughts bear fruit at ReThinkHR on Employees Only Have So Much Power.

Tom Magness at Leader Business separates the wheat from the chaff in describing what it really means to be Leading in Chaos.

Michael Cardus at Create Learning cultivates some thought with Goal Setting: Solving Problems in Line with Values and Commitment.

Chris Stowell at the Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness finds fertile ground on Scorecards: Putting for Dough .

Jesse Meijers sows seeds of thought with Intrinsic Motivation vs. Extrinsic Motivation .

Rajesh Setty ‘s ideas flower on Why MANY Smart People Face a Mid-Career Dilemma and How You Can Avoid It.

Lynn Dessert plants some thoughts about leadership development at Elephants at Work on Is Your Organization Teaching the Right Lessons to Build Executive Talent?

Laura Schroeder at Working Girl clears the ground for a comparison between our workplaces and a popular TV show in The Gleeful Workplace.

Gayathri Moosad picks 20 Essential Leadership Skills for us to consider.

September Round-Up: A Leader Achieves Result

First, this post from Wally Bock that asks the questions “Should leaders be humble or flamboyant? Or should they just make a difference?” I love the conclusions he draws. Be sure to read this one as well, just published this week.

Miki Saxon offers some ideas about how to win in her post “Ducks in a Row: How to Guarantee a Winning Team.”

Bret Simmons, posting at the LeaderLab blog, asserts that empowered leaders enable empowered employees, creating solutions to workplace issues.

Leaders need to be consistent to get results. You’ll be inspired to be consistent when you read this post from Art Petty.

Dan Rockwell says leaders can multiply results by delegating. Read more here.

If you want to achieve results, you need to start with the right attitude, according to Kevin Eikenberry. Read his post “Developing the Right Attitude to Support Goal Achievement.”

The last post comes from Mike Myatt, who challenges leaders to focus on performance.

Image credit: Great Leadership

Unlike many people I like slow. I don’t like my days jamb-packed, I don’t over-book myself and am very good at saying no when necessary. I enjoy conversation and have found that real communications can’t be rushed.

In short, I believe as Gandhi did when he said, “There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.”

Computers have sped everything up, but as common wisdom says, “All computers wait at the same speed.”

I also chuckle at David Ferrier’s view of the technology, “Computer: a million morons working at the speed of light.”

Two thoughts from Edward R. Murrow are worth sharing. The first is, “The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.”

Sadly, the old problem is often solved as it always has been, by saying whatever comes to mind without consideration for its clarity or even its veracity. Murrow had something to say about that, too, “The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.”

Isaac Asimov said “I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander,” but that’s only true for those who take the time to actually listen. These days most folks are so busy multitasking that I doubt they listen with more than 20% of their mind.

Finally, listen and take heed of a very wise woman (not me).

Maya Angelou said, “Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence–neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish–it is an imponderably valuable gift.”

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pikerslanefarm/3226088712/

In a recent column in the NY Times by Bob Herbert adds his voice to mine in condemning today’s wired, multitasking mentality, only he does it with far more flair. The part I want to share is near the end.

There’s a character in the August Wilson play “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” who says everyone has a song inside of him or her, and that you lose sight of that song at your peril. If you get out of touch with your song, forget how to sing it, you’re bound to end up frustrated and dissatisfied. … Other people have something to say, too. And when they don’t, that glorious silence that you hear will have more to say to you than you ever imagined. That is when you will begin to hear your song. That’s when your best thoughts take hold, and you become really you.

Just as individuals have songs companies do also and both need silence to hear them.

The song is MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) set to music; values and culture that sing to you and mirror you.

Songs are elusive and the cacophony that often pervades life and work makes it yet more difficult to hear them.

Why do people keep adding to it and then complain bitterly about the noise.

When I was young I realized that I could have all the stuff I wanted as long as I owned the stuff and the stuff didn’t own me.

Technology is like stuff—you can’t let it own you.

There is a marvelous world outside the window and inside yourself just waiting to be explored.

No thunderbolt will strike if you put it down, turn it off, look out the window, smile and say hi to those you can literally reach out and touch, feel the magic, hear the song.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedbee/103147140/

Dan McCarthy, of Great Leadership fame, produced and directed a terrific Leadership Awards show for you. I didn’t win, but then I was up against stars like Wally Bock, so I’m not too disappointed.

Therefore, without more ado, Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeesssssss Dan!

Art Petty sings and dances with a glamorous showgirl on each arm with Leadership Caffeine-Learning to Lead in the Project-Focused World posted at Management Excellence.

Best Supporting Actress:
The nominations are:

Janna Rust in Self Leadership: Lead yourself to success posted at Purposeful Leadership.

Erin Schreyer in Do I Have Food Stuck In My Teeth? posted at Authentic Leadership.

Anna Farmery in Why you should hate a weekend! posted at The Engaging Brand.

Jane Perdue in Let Us Be the Water posted at Life, Love & Leadership.

Becky Robinson in How To Develop Others posted at Mountain State University LeaderTalk, saying, “In order to grow, people need exposure, opportunity, and challenge.”

And the winner is….. Mary Jo Asmus !

Best Supporting Actor:
The nominations are:

Tom Magness in Learning Leadership from “The Office” — Part I posted at Leader Business, saying, “If you are hooked on “The Office” as I am, you will appreciate this post. We learn leadership from good and bad role models. There are plenty of both with the show’s star and office manager, Michael Scott. If you are hooked on the show, or on leadership, you’ll enjoy these comments.”

Chris Young in Startups, Culture-Shaping, and the “Lifetime Employment Award” posted at Maximize Possibility Blog, saying, “Start-ups are exciting organizations to be a part of. However, leaders can often be blinded by their history with a team member who was “there from the start” and unwittingly give them a “lifetime employment award” at great expense to the organization’s culture and the morale of its other employees.”

William Matthies in Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By posted at Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By.

Mike Henry Sr. in Community’s Forth Dimension posted at Lead Change Group Blog.

Tanmay Vora in Quick Thought on Leadership and Subordination to a Cause posted at QAspire – Quality, Management, Leadership & Life!, saying, “When people subordinate a leader, they are not a leader’s subordinates. They are subordinates to a cause. In that context, even a leader is subordinate to a cause. This post tries to emphasize on this very important facet.”

And the winner is…..Tanmay Vora

Best Actress:
The nominations are:

Mary Jo Asmus in Listening, Part II: What REALLY Gets in the Way? posted at Mary Jo Asmus.

Sharlyn Lauby in 7 Types of Power in the Workplace posted at hr bartender, saying, “Everyone has power. It’s using your power effectively that makes a positive difference.”

Alice Snell in Influence and Learning posted at Taleo Blog – Talent Management Solutions.

LisaRosendahl in Eliminating the Static in Performance Management posted at Lisa Rosendahl, saying, “Performance management is one of the most important things a supervisor can do and it is essential that it be done respectfully and professionally from start to finish.

Jennifer V. Miller in 25 Free Leadership Resources posted at The People Equation.

And the winner is…… Jennifer Miller !

Best Actor:
The nominations are:

David Zinger in Employee Engagement: The Zinger 2020 Vision posted at Employee Engagement Zingers, saying, “The future of employee engagement during this decade.”

Jason Seiden in Your Job Sucks? Really? I’m Shocked. Oh, Wait: No I’m Not. posted at Next Generation Talent Development, saying, “Leadership success starts with the ability to work through adversity… even when adversity comes in the form of our own bad attitudes.”

Steve Roesler in All Things Workplace: What Do We Expect From “Real” Leaders? posted at All Things Workplace, saying, “Leadership authority Steve Roesler says, “One thing I am sure of: You can’t microwave leaders and expect a 5-Star Experience.””

Scott Eblin in Next Level Blog posted at Next Level Blog, saying, “One of the biggest questions for managers moving into executive leadership roles is “How do I delegate bigger decisions to my team and still manage risk?” Scott Eblin has been talking with his clients about that question and has come up with some answers.”

Tom Glover presents Challenges To Being a Team posted at Reflection Leadership.

And the winner is….. Scott Eblin!

Best Director:
The nominations are:

Miki directs MAPping Company Success posted at MAPping Company Success, saying, “In any leadership position you are responsible for creating the culture or subculture (the culture of your group within the overall company culture). Here are 7 basic areas you need to think through and do in order to create and implement the kind of culture you want.”

Wally Bock directs 4 Reasons Why Being a Boss is Not an Olympic Event posted at Three Star Leadership Blog, saying, “Olympic athletes are fun and inspiring to watch. But they’re lousy role models for a boss.”

Adi Gaskell directs A siesta a day keeps the afternoon slump away posted at The Management Blog, saying, “An article showing the virtues of having a nap in the afternoon if you want to be at your best throughout the day.”

Amy Wilson directs Pay for Performance is Dead…almost posted at TalentedApps, saying, “This post covers several signals suggesting that the pay for performance model that we’ve touted in the past might need a serious makeover.”

Nissim Ziv directs Leading a Team Effectively posted at Job Interview Guide, saying, “Teams can be a very effective in producing innovative solutions in the workplace. In jobs throughout every industry, employers always emphasize the need for “good team players.” Teams can generate enthusiasm and increase communication between workers from different departments. “Teamwork” should be the mantra of every organization. Yet, we all know that creating a team can be a bit like creating a monster.”

And the winner is…. Wally Bock!

Best Special Effects:

Aaron Windeler presents Leadership: You don’t know it when you see it posted at Scientific Management.

Nick McCormick presents Social Media Policy Guidelines posted at Joe and Wanda – on Management.

Benjamin McCall in Thing about Leadership… One size does not fit all, posted at ReThinkHR.org.

Shawn M. Driscoll in Dealing with Disillusionment posted at Shawn Driscoll.

Anne Perschel in Fixing the Hole in the Corporate Soul posted at Germane Insights, saying, “Business guru Gary Hamel published “The Hole in the Corporate Soul,” (WSJ) the same day I was writing how to fix it.”

And the winner is….. Anne Perschel!

Here are the rest of our nominations:

Ericka Hines presents Leadership: The future that will exist posted at Ericka Hines, saying, “My blog is targeted towards those in the public sector(nonprofits/social enterprise/government) . I try to make the idea of leadership accessible to understand and to do. I hope that this works for the carnival.”

Jason Reid presents Multi-tasking – doing things badly in twice as much time posted at Sick With Success .com, saying, “A look at how using synergy accomplishes more than multitasking (with examples).”

Andy Klein presents Embrace failure as part of growth posted at The Fortune Group Blog, saying, “When people know they can try and fail and not be reprimanded for doing so, they soon get good at what they do. Growth means trying, so encourage people to try!”

Katy Tynan presents The Simple Path to Leadership Bench Strength posted at Survive Your Promotion!.

Divinelysmile presents The Gender Gap: 10 Surprising Stats on Women in the Workplace posted at JobProfiles.org – Job Descriptions and Online Schools to Start Your Career.

Angela Martin presents 50 Famously Successful People Who Failed At First posted at Online Colleges.org.

Heather Stagl presents Monitor Your Organization’s “Non-Verbal” Communication posted at Enclaria LLC, saying, “It is widely cited that 93% of meaning in a conversation is derived from non-verbal cues. Extrapolating this phenomenon to organizational communication means that most meaning comes from outside official sources.”

Kathy C presents Coaching as a Leadership Competency posted at The Thriving Small Business.

Russell Dygert presents Steak or Hamburger posted at Becoming Who I Should.

Gilda Bonanno presents Using Improv Comedy’s “Half-Life” Technique to Stay Within Your Time Limit While Presenting posted at Gilda Bonanno’s blog, saying, “Public Speaking is an essential success skill for leadership development yet many aspiring leaders still struggle with it. One of the most frequent mistakes they make is to go over the time limit when presenting. This blog post describes a technique from improvisational comedy that can help presenters learn to deliver the essential elements of their message while staying within the time limit.”

Image credit: Great Leadership