Put Down That Phone

Multitasking is so common we don't even bother using the term most of the time...it's just the norm. While we're working we're used to e-mailing, chatting online, tweeting, listening to music, surfing the web...and this week's introduction of the iPad offers us yet another tool for occupying our minds with multiple things at once (my goal was to be like every other blogger and mention the iPad at least once...mission accomplished). Creatives are used to this, and often won't think twice about having multiple tabs open on the computer with only one of them being work-related.

We've gotten used to the idea that multitasking allows us to do so much more. But a study last year at Stanford University tried to figure out what was so special about people who could multitask a lot, and instead discovered they couldn't do things as well as people who stayed focused. Rather than finding an ability to concentrate on many things at once, they discovered an inability to concentrate on any single thing.

Obviously, this isn't what you want from your Creatives. We've accepted the idea that having multiple inputs tends to increase creativity, but instead it may be that our Creatives are too distracted by all the details to be able to finish their work in a timely fashion or with the quality we hope for.

So how do you keep this from having a negative impact on your Creatives' work? Well, you want to be awfully careful about blocking access to Facebook and Twitter, or making policies to keep people from multitasking. Not only will you create a lot of resentment, but you may have individuals who really can handle all these things at once (remember, study results like these look at results across the board rather than at specific individuals). A better option is education, letting your Creatives know about this study and discussing it, and encouraging them to figure out for themselves what works best. In the end, you really need to evaluate them based on their results, rather than how they get them. Give them the latitude to figure out what works best for them, and if the result is lousy work, then they need to deal with the consequences. But at least give them enough information to make that decision.

Just because people think multitasking doesn't have a negative effect doesn't make it so. Help your Creatives do their best work by helping them figure out what's best for them.

Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure: I'm typing this with both Facebook and Twitter going, while watching TV, and I took a call a few minutes ago. And yeah, writing this has taken at least twice as long as it should have.