NPR says we are deluding ourselves about multitasking..

Check out this article and audio from NPR about multitasking. They say we frequently overestimate our ability to do many things at once. I find it interesting that we keep going back to evolutionary science. It seems that for all our new technologies, our bodies (unless you have bionic parts) still think we are hunter-gatherers, or perhaps even hiding in the tall grasses so as not to be eaten by a saber-toothed tiger.

To optimize our experience, then, shouldn't our tools and practices take into account our nature?

Sounds like an interesting book title - How to Avoid Being Eaten By a Saber-toothed Tiger.

On a completely different topic...

What if, like most things, management takes practice and our first attempts are not very good? Writers often toss away their first few books - or put them in a drawer until they can go back and re-read them. Doctors practice on cadavers before they ever cut a live human. Pilots fly simulators before getting into the real cockpit.

Most managers don't get a safe environment in which to practice, learn, and fail. The people are real, their feelings are real, and the consequences are real. Sure, we sometimes do simulations in classes, but these are not good comparisons  - the situations are not very real. I bring this to your attention to evoke three responses:

1. Let's cut newer managers some slack - understand they are learning (hopefully).

2. If you are a manager, your employees - no matter how much it might seem this way on some days - are not cadavers. They need you to be great even if you don't know how to be great.

3. Why do we do this? Why do we promote people who have no idea how to manage, give them no help, and then expect anything other than a metaphorical train wreck?

Comments

[Rob Brooks]

Everyone learns how to be a worker in school, but it's likely they'll receive no training in how to manage people.

Although some workplaces provide formal training in management, for most of our careers we learn from the examples of our managers, good and bad. It's just that sometimes we don't know enough to recognise what's good and what's bad, and we inherit their weaknesses but believe they're strengths.

With so many managers themselves confused and lacking guidance, it's little wonder that management skills are hard to objectively test when considering candidates.

[lisa haneberg]

Kind of like the blind picking the blind out in a line-up?

[Rob Brooks]

Maybe more like me being asked to pick the top 10 couture icons of the century. I might be able to have a go, but I don't expect many magazines will actually be hiring me to do this!