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Fran Stephenson May 9, 2012 Leave a Comment

Goodbye Attention Span

Kathleen's Thinking Chair

A lot changes when you age.  My attention span has really changed in the last five years. While I’m not exactly sure whether it’s physical aging or environmental factors, I have recently begun calling this syndrome “late onset ADHD.” Never in my working life have I had so many things happening at once.  Irons in the fire, balls in the air, massive multi-tasking — call it what you want, my work habits are complicated and messy. And it shows no signs of changing any time soon.

With apologies to the many people who live with the real thing, the symptoms of my “late onset ADHD” include:

  • Incessantly checking devices
  • Moving with breakneck speed to a new project before current project is finished
  • Transferring papers from the left to the right side of your desk, so you can check off “clean desk” on your to-do list
  • The need to keep at least 6 windows open so you can tab through them quickly while working

Does this sound familiar?

Apparently, I’m not alone. Several researchers are looking at the effects of multi-tasking and multimedia use on our brains. And so far, the news is mixed.

Clay Shirky, in his book Cognitive Surplus, believes that we have more opportunities than every before in our connected world.  From his frame of reference, we are using more brain power now than we did when we were passive media consumers, ensconced on the couch, enjoying media which was carefully chosen by us by those who had the power to create media.   Shirky believes that our vast amounts of free time combined with the ability to create our own media to solve puzzles and problems; in fact, he believes we’ve got lots of spare brain power in which to do that.  Shirky introduces the concept in a 2010 TED Talk in France. 

Not everyone is as optimistic as Shirky about how our connected world is changing the way we think.

Guelph University professor Naseem Al-Aidroos is studying the brain’s attentional mechanisms to see how it filters and prioritizes what to pay attention to and what is less important. His findings suggest that task completion was higher when participants were asked to pay attention to certain visual cues. For those of us struggling to pay attention at all, this complicates task completion.  Who gets your attention? And for how long?

Last year, CNN did a story about the research of David Levy, who categorizes our massive multi-tasking as a condition called “popcorn brain” —  described as a brain constantly stimulated by multitasking that it cannot adapt to routine offline tasks.

So what’s the antidote?

I have discussed the “always on” with many colleagues who are in a similar condition.  All are trying to develop strategies that take them back to the real world more frequently, in the hopes of resisting the magnet attraction of their devices. Here’s a few I’m ready to try.

My former SeaWorld colleague Kathleen Mundy lives on a ranch outside San Antonio and walks her property each morning. She posts short, but engaging descriptions of these walks on Facebook. She doesn’t post every single day, but when she does, I always read them.  She has a chair in a special spot on her property called the thinking chair.  You can see it in the picture above. That’s two great strategies for disconnecting:  walking and thinking.

Other colleagues discuss scheduled downtime, turning off devices after or at a certain time so they can focus their energy on something else.

While these may not be perfect solutions, they do create some boundaries to let ideas flourish. I’m going to try all three of these strategies over the summer, as well tackling the IRL (in real life) stack of books next to my desk.  What strategies do you use to combat “late onset ADHD”? I would love to hear about them in the comments section here.

Filed Under: On My Mind Tagged With: attention span, multi-tasking, popcorn brain

Fran Stephenson April 24, 2012 Leave a Comment

On My Mind: Talk Value

Is PR talk value?  At a recent professional development event I attended, the speaker continually  referred to talk value as PR. The first couple of times, it was okay. By the seventh or so reference, I started to cringe each time the phrase was used.

What is it about this reference which grates on my ears?

Perhaps it is the dismissive tone that seems to accompany the statement.

It might be the propensity for this phrase to be one of dozens of cliches used by PR practitioners to justify tactics. Some others that are popular right now include buzz and viral.  As in, “Let’s create some buzz with this new widget” or “how about if we make a viral video.”

Most likely, what troubles me about the reference is the complete lack of finality.   That buzz or talk value is good enough goes completely against the relationship building that is and should be at the heart of every public relations practitioners’ sense and sensibility.

Hanging your hat on talk value completely eliminates a vital component of public relations: effecting attitude or behavior change.

What are your thoughts on talk value? Love it? Hate it?  Please comment here.

Filed Under: On My Mind, Strategic Communication Tagged With: essays, PR, Step In Communication, talk value

Fran Stephenson March 12, 2012 Leave a Comment

Happy Birthday Girl Scouts!

Me, as a Girl Scout, circa 1968

Happy birthday Girl Scouts!

Today this venerable organization for girls turns 100.  I attribute my success in my life and my career to a great Girl Scouting experience. The motto “Be Prepared” has served me well in public relations and in my family life.

I was a Girl Scout for the ten best years of my life and couldn’t let this occasion go by without looking back at what Girl Scouting did for me.

As a Brownie, I learned about the importance of friends, and helping others.  I went to day camp at Strawberry Lane and made a sit upon, which I used to sit on the floor of the Royalview Elementary School gym in Willowick, Ohio.  My dad and I attended our first (and only) father/daughter cookout, an event he raved about until I was an adult. We had cute brown beanies and little brown dresses.

I moved up to Junior Scouts and met Mrs. Bosu, our leader for Troop 501 of the Lake Erie Girl Scout Council.  That woman knew every song every written and should have been an opera singer.  She was fearless at everything she did. We camped in the pouring rain and jumped in the hay of an old barn.  We learned about service to the community when we went Christmas caroling at an old folks home.  We went roller skating, which was huge in the late 1960s. Somehow my grandma became a cookie selling machine and my mom’s sewing machine was pressed into service for all kinds of troop projects. I wrote my first column called “Ask Fran” and published a newspaper for the troop using a mimeograph machine.

For some reason, I didn’t quit in junior high when the ranks begin to thin.  As a Cadet scout, I explored career possibilities by completing numerous badges.  By this time, service to the community was second nature.  One of my fondest memories was an all-day cleanup to cull out the lily pads which were choking out the ducks at the pond – just around the corner from Strawberry Lane where I first went to day camp.

By the time I was in high school, there was no way I would drop out.  Our Senior Leader, Mrs. Hodina, was an amazing role model. She could wear a dress, she could drive us to camp in her giant truck, and she understood teenagers, adapting our meeting schedule to meet the needs of 10 very busy high school girls. We couldn’t wait until our winter campout at Camp Hilaka, where we took over the leaders’ house, built fires and went sledding. We continued to serve, organizing a Field Day each spring to teach camp skills to the younger girls.

I sold cookies out of my locker.

One summer, I got to go to sailing camp, achieving a childhood dream. The following year, I qualified for a Wider Opportunity.  Traveling to Wisconsin, I met girls from all over the world, bounced on a bog, met Bart Starr of the Green Bay Packers and learned that strangers are just friends you haven’t met yet.

While many of my memories are about fun, what Girl Scouting taught me is that service to others is the greatest gift you can give your community.  It also taught me to understand things and people that are different from me, and that friendships are everlasting.

So, to Juliet Low, Girl Scout founder, thank you for being our pioneer. Here’s to a hundred more years of empowering girls.

Filed Under: On My Mind Tagged With: 100th birthday, Girl Scouts, Step In Communication

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