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Multitasking—Does
it Make People More or Less Productive, Does it Cost or Save Money?
| A special Report by Carol I.
Kallendorf, Ph.D. and Jack Speer, based on comments from
BizWatchOnline.com colleagues |
Our professional survival depends
on maximizing our productivity. But how can we be most effective?
By trying to juggle as much as possible at once? Or by
sequentially doing one task at a time and doing it well? What’s
the real skinny about multitasking?
What makes you choose to do what
you do—and don’t do? What allows you to perform critical,
value-adding tasks, rather than endless details that add up to
nothing? |
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Carol
Kallendorf, PhD, Founder, The Delta Associates
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| We asked this question
of several of our colleagues who are BizWatchOnline
readers. We received replies from every level in organizations
spanning a host of industries and from around the world. Some
recent research has reported that multitasking actually costs
companies money. We wanted to know what the real experts—our
readers—thought about it.
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The "Multitasker Gone
Amuck"
We all fear the "multitasker
gone amuck" within us. You’re sitting in an airport
terminal watching the departure monitor with one eye. Your cell
phone is skillfully cradled between neck and shoulder while your
palm pilot is balanced on your knee as you discuss a client
meeting with your boss.
Multitasking gone amuck will
certainly ground a career that’s been flying. Too many focuses
of attention will bring us down. Eighty-seven-year old creativity
expert Anne Robinson uses the juggling analogy. At first
you can juggle several fairly complex items, but at some point if
you continue to add objects, they will outstrip your ability and
you will most certainly "drop the ball."
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Sean
Kelly, Texas Natural Resources Commission,
multitasking with notebook, cell phone, documents, and
hotdog in hand. |
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The
CEO Point of View
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By John Schofield, President
Advanced Fibre Communications |
Publisher’s note: A CEO is head of a
whole company, and could choose to work on any issue
that might come up, no matter how big or small. For this
reason one of the most important skills of a CEO is in
deciding what he or she should be working on. Choosing
the right issues to become involved in is the secret of
CEO success. John Schofield gives us his view of how he
decides to spend his time.
I am somewhat of a believer that
multitasking can get you in trouble. I try
to handle my tasks one at a time and do them right,
however, you always have to be prepared for the
"critical interrupt."
I try to be very strict about people coming to see me on
an interrupt basis....it must be critical, very time
sensitive and need my personal attention now, otherwise
it waits until I complete whatever task I am doing.
The same goes for phone interrupts. And while I am a
believer in "the open door policy" this is
only up to a point. If people
want to just "shoot the breeze," they can catch me when I go to the
coffee machine. If people have a genuine need to see me
about an issue that is affecting either them or the
business, I make time on the schedule based on the
importance of the issue.
I also try hard to make sure the tasks that I deal with
are the right ones, and the ones that should be dealt
with by others in the organization are in fact dealt
with by them.
With phone interrupts, unless they are very critical
(either a family crisis or issue or a customer who is
really upset about something), my tendency is to have
Kristine take messages or put people in voice mail so I
can get back to them when my schedule permits.
I try very hard to always get back to
people even if it takes a day or two because of
schedules. I try to schedule my email reviews to certain
times of the day...I do emails
then, and nothing else. Typically, I review emails for
the first 15-30 minutes I am in the office, deal with
the critical ones and then move on to the next task.
I am a firm believer that the world, as we know it, will
not come to an end if we don't jump on some new critical
task "right now." I think a lot of people
"multitask" as a way of showing, either to
themselves or to others, just how important and needed
they are. |
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Multitasking
or the Linear Approach—What Is the Research Saying?
Multitasking has hit the
national news. Dr. Joshua Rubinstein, now at the
Federal Aviation Administration, conducted a series of
experiments on adults to measure the time it takes the brain
to mentally switch between tasks. His co-author was Dr.
David E. Meyer, a professor of psychology at the
University of Michigan. They conducted a series of
experiments in which they gave participants a series of
tasks with different rules or protocols for their
completion. Some were more complex, while others simpler.
The study measured the
gap of extra milliseconds the brain requires to switch
mental gears between tasks. According to Rubinstein and
Meyer, these lost milliseconds over time add up to bigger
wasted bucks than if the person had stuck to one-loom
knitting. (for a full text of the story, go to http://www.apa.org/journals/xhp/
press_releases
/august_2001/xhp274763.html.)
People Love Multitasking or Hate it—but
Few Are Neutral
Multitasking is where the world is
today for people like Mario A. Grasso, with the hard
charging Dell Latin America Small and Medium Business
Marketing group.
"Technology clearly is the
factor that made this a reality. What is clear is that more and
more, we'll be forced to do things in parallel in order to keep
the pace on this hyper competitive, global economy in which we are
today."
To some, multitasking is
fundamental to today’s workplace: "Sometimes it really
confuses me" says Jason Martin, co-founder of Navantis
in Toronto, a company that develops efficiency hardware for folks
like Microsoft, "when I think of how slow the economy
operated before the information age. It would have taken ten days
to have the same amount of interaction that today occurs in ten
minutes."
Others see it as what drives shoddy
work in the world today and would like to return to the days when
things got done one at a time, and they got done right.
So What Does the Research Show?
The research shows
us what kinds of lapses there are in switching from task to
task, measuring milliseconds lost. This kind for research
measures the physical reality of human mind/body function—how
fast and how much.
But the research on
multitasking so restricts
what it measures that it has limited value to any
understanding of human productivity. It does not deal with
the environmental necessities of the workplace today.
For instance, let’s say you’ve
recently washed up on the shore of a tropical island. You’re
glad to quickly find a beautiful waterfall and know you have
water. As you scan the horizon you see some terrible weather
coming which may batter the island, meaning you must find
shelter. A poisonous snake slithers by and you know your shelter needs to be off
the ground. On the horizon you hear the beat of distant drums from
someone you hope is friendly.
So how do you determine what you’ll
do first, second, and third? It won’t be based on a cool
analysis of how fast I do one job as opposed to another. It will
be based on two factors: danger and opportunities. These two
factors determine what we’ll do and when.
Technology and
Multitasking—How the Information Age Has Changed Work
Styles
Jeff Jack,
Executive Assistant to Austin City Council Member Beverly
Griffith, and an architect by training and profession, says
that multitasking is the end result of where technology and
human biology have been going for centuries. We’ve moved
from family cobbler shops to the industrial assembly line
that made shoes in quantity, back to the non-centralized
work of individuals made possible because the technology
pulls projects and initiatives together, although the work
is done by individuals working on many tasks.
Katherine Harris, COO of Beveridge Diamond Law is wired to a network of her
owner/partner lawyers in Washington D.C., Baltimore, New
York and San Francisco. She uses her cell phone, RIM
Blackberry, to retrieve email from any point, and a Palm
Pilot to maintain her schedule. She is relentless at
delegating and managing complexity to a schedule that she
can live with.
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Shelly Saini,
of American MNC, Delphi Automotive Systems outside New Deli,
India, sees multitasking as the logical outcome of the technological
revolution. "I think the advent of computers and artificial
intelligence initiated the thought of equating the human mind to a
machine capable of performing multiple operations and tasks at the
same time. So the ability of a person to do many different things
during a day seemed a reasonable expectation that got further
fueled with the fast pace of living in the 21st Century." She
warns us, however, that we must never forget that we are
biological organisms, not machines.
Cheryl Khoo,
Associate Director of Human Resources at Antah Schindler Sdn Bhd
in Kuala Lumpur, LUMPUR, Malaysia points out that advances in
technology allow people to be incredibly productive in
multitasking. A client mail-out a decade ago would require
composition, editing without spell and grammar check, stuffing,
stamping and inspecting. Such a mailing could have taken a half
dozen people the better part of the week. Now a knowledgeable worker
can write the letter on his or her Notebook a world away from the
office and another person onsite can handle merging the letter
with the
database.
For and
Against Multitasking—Two Extremes You Don’t Want to
Rule Your Day
Come and Get Me Management. A few years ago we
had a CEO client of a mid-sized publishing company who was
definitely a multitasker. The company had a central
calendaring system. You could pull up his calendar or
those close to him and write yourself into any blank
space. This CEO had no sense of a hierarchy of importance
and inserted himself into the most microscopic of
minutiae. Needless to say, he never got to the really
important things and his company languished for years
until he was replaced.
If It's Not Scheduled, I Won’t Do It. There are a few
managers who are at the opposite extreme. They won’t do
anything that’s not on their schedules. New items go at
the bottom and work their way up to the top. Managers such
as this fail to scan the horizon for opportunities that
may only come once.
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What’s the Nature of Your Job? —Multitasking or Linear
Sequence?
Where people get into trouble is
when they’re handling two or three high-stakes projects where
failure to concentrate brings big consequences. The complexity of
the task and the margin of error tell you whether you can
multitask or not. If I’m working on a project I might call
someone up, ask for a telephone number, and then promptly lose it
while I was returning another call and answering an email. It’s
embarrassing, but not too big a deal for me to call the person
back and say, "Sorry, Bill, I lost that number you gave me.
Could you give it to me again?" Bill probably gives me some
verbal grief, but cuts me a little slack because he knows he’s
done the same thing himself.
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When
Multitasking Can Become Disaster
William Cryer, Vice President of Corporate
Communications for Samsung, is no friend of
multitasking, and he makes a chilling point. He’s felt
himself in danger while trying to operate a two-ton
automobile and a cell phone.To the point of danger for the
company, he says, "As far as the company is
concerned, I think multitasking can be downright dangerous
to all, especially in areas where the push of the wrong
button can send millions of dollars of product to the
wafer crusher."
Is Doing Things One-at-a-Time Something that Doesn’t
Work Today?
Not according to many readers. Jim Ashby, Vice
President of Corporate Finance for Advanced Micro Devices,
sees Aikido as the model for getting things done."In
Aikido (a Japanese martial art)," says Jim,
"they teach that the best/only way to deal with a
simultaneous attack by multiple opponents is to focus
completely on only one at a time, deal with him and then
move on (quickly) to the next. This requires discipline
(because the natural inclination is to divide your
attention among several of the attackers), skill in
deciding the order in which to address the attackers, and
skill in being able to switch focus quickly and
completely." Thus in the workplace, dragons must be
slain quickly, but one at a time.
Mike Woollems, Vice President of Finance for
Advanced Micro Devices, says that "one of the
most critical aspects of being effective in your job is
the power of focus. To be effective, it’s necessary to
prioritize what you want to accomplish during the day and
then focus on accomplishing those priorities. Many people
are slaves to their phones or email. This isn’t
necessary."
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Who Should Multitask?
Some people should multitask, while
others should not, according to Rob Brager, Managing
Director of Beveridge Diamond Law firm, headquartered in
Washington, DC.
"In my experience," says
Rob, "some people are quite adept at multitasking, seemingly
born to shift gears at a moment's notice. These people prefer
breadth to depth, and need a limited number of ‘facts’ to
believe they have sufficient knowledge. They can make productive
decisions with limited facts and are adept multitaskers. People
with this characteristic and who are correct (i.e., they can make
productive decisions with limited facts) are adept multitaskers.
Obviously, others are quite the opposite. These others prefer
depth to breadth. They revel in and exploit the minutiae, and
therefore find multitasking to be disruptive. To get the most out
of these people, they should be given a single task or two, and
allowed to jump in with both feet and no distractions."
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Multitasking Isn’t Going Away—So
What’s Good About it and How Can We Use It?
Multitasking is now a part of our
lives and work culture. There will be some parts of accounting,
research and development, and writing, where professionals can
find refuge inside an office, working carefully on a project
hour-after-hour and then presenting the outcome of their work. For
most of us, however, the issue of the hour penetrates any plan,
project, or barrier we may have erected. We can protect hours for
concentrated work, but our days are like battles with incoming
attacks, return of the wounded, and counter-attacks that are part
of our survival. Multitasking lives and will not die.
Do’s and Don’ts
of Multitasking
- It’s not either or in
multitasking.
Everybody
has to do some single-minded tasks and also do some things
simultaneously. "You can plot people on a continuum,"
says Jon Keeney, of British Petroleum. These people
multitask according to the situation and the complexity of the
task.
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"Use the methods described by
Stephen Covey, in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,"
says Jeff Hahn, Public Affairs Director for Motorola
Semiconductor Products Sector. "Essentially, I do my best
to set aside blocks of time every day to work on ‘important’
things, so that I can manage ‘urgent’ things as they blow my
way. The essence of successful multitasking is finding the
balance between ‘important’ work and ‘urgent’ activity,
understanding/feeling the difference, and creating progress on
both fronts."
Be plan-driven in choosing your
task. No matter what your
place is or how many things you’re doing, you must have a plan
reining in the chaos and choosing direction. "Focus and
mindfulness of where you’re going is everything," according
to Bruce Smith, Director of Marketing Communications at
Advanced Micro Devices.
Systematically insist on creating
times for tasks like responding to email or telephone
messages. Sheila Hosler, a key
administrative person in Human Resources for Slifer Designs, in
the Vail Valley of Colorado, describes herself as "the queen
of multitasking." Yet she puts boundaries on multitasking by
carefully guarding time to do tasks that require concentration.
Reprioritize Your Objectives.
Issues will arise that come out of nowhere, and sometimes priorities on
the "back burner" will suddenly become critical. Kim
Wolfe, HR Director for Slifer Designs gives us "Actually,
though, I do consider myself somewhat of a juggler, and my main
"tool" is that about twice a day I take five or ten
minutes to re-prioritize the things on my ‘to do list.’ With
today’s fast-changing agenda, we need a method for
re-evaluation of
what’s important."
Create a way to find uninterrupted places for concentration.
It's not uncommon for high-level professionals and managers to
be working out of a cubical. In these cases you have to be
creative. Schedule time to work at home and don't be
apologetic about it. I know one executive who does a
great deal of work out of Starbucks. With proper
technology you can be almost anywhere and not be out of contact.
Almost everyone must schedule "alone time" to do good
work.
Create an environment where people
can complete their objectives.
"Our work ethic in America is
'produce,’" says hard-charging Jackie Goodman, Mayor Pro
Tem of the City of Austin, "and we know we can do it, too,
but at a cost. Since the ethic IS to produce, because others are
counting on you—it notches up the 'over-achiever' in you.
This kind of stress can stimulate creativity, innovation, and make
you extend the range of what you may have thought your skills and
abilities were, but it can also lead to a half-baked
product."
The supplemental insurance
company, AFLAC, of advertising duck fame, has made a
conscientious effort to create an environment where employees
can be successful. They train managers to limit the number
of objectives they give to employees. "I had one company
officer indicate that he had given 15 annual objectives to one
employee," says Jim Krause, senior training manager,
"Talk about overload!!! We got him down to four."
Interestingly, at AFLAC, completing objectives is only 50% of the
annual employee review. Other AFLAC metrics are Leadership
Skills and Core Values such as work/life balance and people
development.
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