Know how you get overloaded

I'm posting on cognitive overload this week. We feel overload at conferences or training when we feel 'full', overflowing with information and can't take any more in.

Here's how it happens:

🐞G-r-a-d-u-a-l

This mental overload happens over a long day. You feel like a zombie and the simplest tasks can seem difficult. As the day wears on, you might think the sessions are less interesting or less captivating, but it's usually because we are less able to discriminate and determine what's of value.

🚀Rapid

You can get overloaded in a single presentation or meeting; this is over a shorter period of time; too much information and too high a degree of difficulty (yes, like Olympic divers or gymnasts executing a tricky move!)

Cognitive overload is a common problem in the modern workplace. We're confronted with so much information from so many different sources, and in so many different styles.

It's not going to fix itself ... we'll need to do something about it. The skill is 'cognitive load coping.'

A deadline is not the only standard

A deadline is not the only standard

I met a team this week who were working on a task and they were stressed about it, working hard, pushing on, staying back late to get the work done to meet a deadline.

It was due 6 days later. The only target or standard they were going for was the date, the deadline. And it seemed they were working as many hours as they could until the date arrived. But something was missing.

We talked about identifying, asking for or clarifying other standards as well as the date, say, the quality required or expected.

How much?

What’s required by the due date?

One page or six?

Some key headings?

Raw data or curated insights?

None of these were known. It was all about the due date. It was full speed ahead, doing whatever they could until time ran out. Other work and priorities they had on fell away.

We worked together on asking clarifying questions so they could gather more information about the expectations and requirements required for any of the work they're doing. It will save them hours/days of unnecessary work and will dramatically reduce stress levels.

Overwork, burnout and perfectionism is a growing problem at work. It’s worth seeking out and then going for more than a deadline.

There is power in 'collective sense'

There is power in 'collective sense'. This week I'm posting on sensemaking, the skill in understanding the deeper meaning of something.

How do you do it? Write some stuff down and write it in a layout that looks more like a map rather than a list. When you do this in a meeting and other people can see that map, you start to do ‘collective sensemaking’. Making sense of things together.

Collective sense is in contrast to lone voices and egos who dominate meetings, propose solutions prematurely, or shut people down. It’s in contrast to the loud speakers, the interrupters and the repeaters. Collective sensemaking makes better leaders, and it's a skill today's leaders need to sharpen up on.

I’ll leave you with these four templates from my book ‘Making Sense: A Handbook for the Future of Work’:

1. a simple line or continuum

2. a set of stairs (have you ever presented information about 'stepping up or improving'; this is an ideal shape and template)

3. a path or road with signs (journey, anyone?)

4. network diagram (from earlier this week). Give a like if you've learned something this week about sensemaking.

🤔 What are you trying to make sense of at work? 

Lists are great for shopping. Not great for sensemaking.

Lists are great for shopping. Not great for sensemaking.

When you’re in a meeting, discussing, generating ideas and solutions, planning details of how things might work, you might write down some key points:

* In a list.

* Like this.

* And this.

* Another point like this.

* And more like this.

While it feels efficient capturing what’s happening - sequentially - it’s not so helpful for making sense, now or later. A vertical list of dot points is challenging to retain, build links in, find common themes or show relationships and connections.

Ditch the list; make a map. You zoom out on Google Maps to see where you are: roads, suburbs and towns become visible. The ‘dots’ of towns are connected, not in a list but in a network.

A network map is one of the foundation tools I use to help people build sensemaking skills. It shows relationships, connections, more detailed information. Lines can be different thicknesses; circles different sizes. This communicates something more than any list can. The quality of the map? It doesn't matter. It's that you made a map - that matters.

Managing information overload in a world of too much %$#&* information

The Institute for the Future said cognitive load coping was a 'got to have it' skill for 2020. I've been keynoting at conferences on Day 1 giving delegates these much needed 'cognitive load coping' skills.

Are we ever 'taught' or 'shown' what to do in a situation of information overload? Many people zone out, reach for the comfort of their mobile device, feign understanding (head nodding) or daydream.

Info overload at conferences happens:

🐌 g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y (end of Day 1 you feel zombie-ish)

or

🚀 rapidly (presentation is so fast, laden with charts and stats you lose the threads ... gone).

Part of the 'it's all too much' zone is when we foolishly choose to REWORK information. We store it (take photos of slides at conferences, save PDFs, type notes, screenshot stuff) fully intending to 'look at it later'.

But it's one of the most ineffective and inefficient ways to handle information overload. Rather, get up out of the 'it's all too much zone'. It's worth building the confidence and capability to handle all that information, live ... in the moment so you are indeed 'all over it'.