William Cobbett once used a smoked (therefore reddish brown) herring to distract a pack of hounds from the scent of a hare. Then on 14 February 1807 he used the incident to criticise the English Press who had mistakenly reported the defeat of Napoleon calling it a ‘political red herring’. And so the term ‘Red Herring’ became entrenched in the language as a diverting trail.
And don’t we love red herrings? Especially when we have other work to do that is not so interesting. When distractions are not managed we downgrade our capacity to achieve anything of significance, individually and as a team. Effectively you can have a team bright people who are producing like a bunch of dummies. Our brains were created to function under certain, very specific conditions. There are boundaries beyond which our brain becomes quite inefficient. We know this.
So what to do?
Well in order to perform effectively, at a deep functioning level our brain depends on our capacity to apply three executive management tasks:
- Attention: the capacity to focus on particular stimuli. The ability and the need to pay attention.
- Inhibition: The ability to inhibit other stimuli. We need to remove distractions including irrelevant of destructive inputs.
- Managing working memory: We need to be able to retain and access relevant information for reasoning, decisions making for future actions.
These three executive functions provide the basis for more advanced thinking and brain-work that is simply not possible if these three requirements do not operate an optimum level. It is therefore a key requirement for a leader to establish the boundaries for attention. How are managing these executive functions for you and your team? Because there are very real benefits in doing this.
The power is felt in a number of ways
When the executive functions of the brain are activated and nurtured, they enable the next level of executive capacities, those you really want to see happening in your organisation. These are the processes that deliver the value. These include:
- Selecting the right goals.
- Planning and organising to achieve these goals.
- Initiating and persisting at the work to realise the plan.
- Flexing and adapting to address obstacles and solve problems.
- Executing the plan within time and budget.
- Self-management to achieve optimum personal performance.
As leader you take total responsibility for what you create and what you allow in your team. As you steer attention to priorities according to the three executive functions, your organisation can operate as one large decision-making and executing body, carrying out all of the above tasks, seamlessly. As you inhibit intrusion of the irrelevant and keep key information front-of-mind the lights will begin to come on for your team. They will have insights that bring new wiring to their brains. You will begin to recognise new power of attending, inhibiting, and remembering in:
- People fully engaged: Alive, focussed and creative, they are stretching themselves, drawing on their unique gifts. The infectious energy of engagement will be felt from top to bottom, the energy of people ‘bringing it’.
- Driving results: The team driving towards their vision. Results create more energy, more focus and learning, driving more results. Momentum becomes its own driving force as people see real outcomes.
- People released for constant adaptation and learning: Execution alone is no longer enough. Now, with all of the change you need to execute flawlessly and constantly redesign your next step based on a reflection of the last. The organization that is attentive, not distracted, and attuned to what is happening does that best.
- People growing: With focus, standards and reality-based expectations, people have no choice but to grow. And they love it. They flourish. Non-contributors can no longer safely hide, just looking busy, adding nothing to the mission.
- Unmistakeable forward motion: As you learn and adapt you move forward. There is no stagnation there. No waiting for the light in tunnel to roll over them.
- A top-quality offer: Your customers, your market feel the energy and excitement. They know you are on top of “it”. You deliver what they want, you touch their hearts. You capitalise on each moment of truth to create an unforgettable positive experience, a transformational moment in which they feel a state of “need” transformed into a state of “satisfaction”. They bonded with you.
As you provide the leadership to illustrate these skills, your people begin to focus attention, inhibit distractions and manage their working memory.
Everyone develops new habits.
Everyone changes.
Everyone wins.
