OK, so I'll admit it. I like to channel surf. When I'm at home, with 150 channels and virtually the entire entertainment world at my fingertips, I surf through the channels like nobody's business. I skip from sports channels to movie channels to the god help me VH1 and other channels that seem to provide less entertainment than televised revulsion. Bread and circuses anyone?
But I digress. If, given 150 channels of "high quality" entertainment I constantly flip through the offerings, what kind of inputs and entertainment are likely to capture my attention at work, especially given the high interrupt culture we advocate in our businesses (email, IM, cell phone, management by walking around, open door policy, back to back meetings, short term, high pressure deadlines). Perhaps rather than try to get people to slow down or schedule their time effectively we should understand that they are naturally channel surfers and learn to manage them and help them manage themselves in that way.
What would this mean practically? In most meetings you should schedule lots of information in very short, dynamic presentations of 90 seconds or less, basically the commercial break for televised sports. The presentations need to be very eye catching and put the "ask" right up front. Don't build to the conclusion, people simply don't have the time or patience. Put it right out there immediately. Be confrontational. Have an attitude. Do something to get people hooked early or you've lost them.
When you allocate or assign work to people, provide two or three concurrent tasks so they have the flexibility to switch between several different tasks. Since none of us can stay focused on any one task for very long, provide a couple of similar but different tasks that people can switch between. This allows them to "channel surf" their work, and may provide some learning or insights if you can assign work that may spawn insights or new thinking as people hop from task to task.
Perhaps we've been going about this all wrong. Rather than trying to bottle up the channel surfing, interrupt mode of operating, perhaps we should optimize the way we work and how we get things done based on the temperament and style of working that an individual is most comfortable with. Clearly the channel surfing mode isn't for everyone, but it might be the right operating model for a great number of people.
people still channel surf? that's so 1990's why don't you just look through your guide for a show or movie that you know you'd want to watch and watch it until it's over, rinse and repeat.
Posted by: Cynycal | March 07, 2009 at 01:49 PM
approx how many people surf today(2010) in the U.S> and the world?
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