Overloaded before we start work

Most of us have experienced the feelings of overwhelm and information overload ... just thinking about our 'to do’ list can cue overwhelm.

A group I worked with last week, (boosting cognitive load coping skills + how to deal with information overload) explained how they listen to podcasts, audio books, interviews and radio programs on their daily commutes to work.

There’s nothing wrong with this. It’s entertaining and educational and a great use of time.

What we need to be aware of is how we fill up our sponge or tank with content and information that we absorb, synthesize and digest. Because then we arrive at work and are faced with even more content and information to absorb, synthesize and digest!

Aargh!

No wonder overload comes a’ knocking!

Cognitive overload happens rapidly or g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y. It's possible we could be overloaded before the work day begins, or soon after we get started at work.

Our indicator rises to ‘full’; there's just no capacity to add much more.

An answer? Allow a buffer, like half-time in a sporting event. Allow neutral time where you’re taking in nothing. Nothing. It helps "release the load".

Coping with information overload

A Time Inc article suggests modern psychologists and neurologists have found more reasons why we dream. Using PET scans and MRI imaging they’ve discovered what our brain is trying to do - after a full day’s work of overwhelming meetings and information dumps.

While we’re asleep, dreaming is the brain’s way of deleting or ‘dumping excess data’. Our brain is kind of taking out the trash, but it’s also ‘consolidating important information’.

The categorizing, sorting and processing that's going on in dreaming is epic!

So how in our waking hours could we also DUMP the meaningless and CACHE the valuable stuff?

If we’re doing it automatically, unconsciously while we sleep, imagine if we did more of this while we're awake and working, collaborating and problem solving. Imagine our performance lift!

I’m not suggesting you nod off right now, trying to make sense of that meeting you were just in, but hey, some businesses do support power napping!

Rather, try using my 'CCC' technique:

- Categorize

- Consolidate and then

- Clear ... throughout the day. I

t's a much smarter way to work when overloaded. Why wait until bed time.

Do you A3

Working with teams, building their sensemaking and problem-solving skills, I’ll often ask them, ‘Do you A3?’

So ... do YOU A3?

🔲 Yes

🔲 No

🔲 Kind of

If yes, you’re an A3 thinking kind of person, you’d know how powerful this way of thinking and working is. It’s great for problem solving, communicating, collaborating, presenting and working. (And hey, share more of your thinking like this. Help others understand what is gained when you can see what’s going on).

If you’re a no, you can start now. I have a task for you below.

If you’re a 'kind of', is that because you’ve heard of it but don’t use it, or something else?

A3 thinking (using A3 sized paper) is a thing. With foundations from Toyota, lean manufacturing and the lean product development process great Al Ward, A3 pages are being created, prepared and shared around the world right now to communicate and make sense of some of the most challenging and complex things.

A task for you: get 1 piece of A3 paper and write on it, some of the things you’re currently working on. Keep the page this week, add to it, make notes. Share it with others, use it to explain stuff, see how it helps yours and other people’s thinking.

7 hours of meetings and no time for work

This is a reality, stuck in meetings each day, trying to do the work, but being locked in back-to-back meetings giving you no time to actually do the work.

Is this your world too?

While we need meetings to collaborate, communicate, co-design and co-create, most organisations still haven’t worked out how to support their leaders to run meetings in ways that are more productive, creative, effective and collaborative.

These are the four outcomes good sensemaking + facilitation delivers in meetings:

🌕 productive

🌕 creative

🌕 effective

🌕 collaborative.

At your next meeting, ask or enquire: What sensemaking techniques are we using today, to help us understand each other and help us make these important decisions?

If you get blank faces as a response, or ’the PowerPoint deck’, or ‘Karen is taking minutes’ … these all get the ’no/wrong’ buzzer from me. Bzzzzt!

With 7 hours of meetings, the meetings aren’t working. They’re not making sense; likely going around in circles; and lacking focus, leadership and outcomes.

You need just one sensemaker in the room to completely change how a meeting works.

Are you the one? 

Your overwhelm is your business

We're faced with daily situations of overwhelm, yet expected to keep up, work it out and carry on.

It happens when we learn something new, start a new role, join a new team or get new responsibilities.

Heck, it happens if we move to a new town, read the menu at a new cafe or have a conversation with someone new! These all have the potential to cause overwhelm.

Nature's metaphors of floods, mudslides, sand storms and sink holes overwhelm cars, buildings and villages in the same way that we get overwhelmed.

But what we're drowning in is information, data, details.

It doesn't feel good.

So do we wait until everyone is a better presenter, leader and communicator, who'll make it all better by delivering information in ways we easily digest? Oh yeah... we’ll be waiting awhile!

This is why our overwhelm - when it happens - is our business. It’s ours to get out of. We don’t have to do it alone, but we do need to take responsibility for it.

Next time you experience overwhelm, notice your response to it. Is your strategy to escape overwhelm or to conquer it? Sensemaking is a deliberate practice to use in the space of overwhelm.

Ask

- what's going on

- what's this about

- what do I need to do.