Advice:

Reorganise your attention to boost your decision impact

Written by Nuala Walsh Tuesday 04 June 2024

Nuala Walsh explains how inattention is a growing epidemic and secret saboteur of decision-making – and shares five ways to reorganise your attention and “tune in” to the right voices

Are you about to make a tough decision?

The most underestimated risk isn’t economic, commercial, political or even cyber risk. It’s human decision risk and the ability to pay enough attention to hear what really matters.

While leaders get many decisions right, unanticipated errors can be disproportionately damaging to careers, lives and livelihoods. A substantial body of research attributes disasters to human error and reduced attention spans. It’s time to pay attention to inattention.

A modern dilemma: the attention trap

Attention spans are shortening as audiences become more impatient, consuming information in soundbites and 280-character limits. In 2013, Professor Sune Lehmann analysed the top 50 trends on X and found that the average conversation circulated for 17.5 hours. By 2016, this had dropped to 11.9 hours. Today, it’s likely to be less.

Want to discover how to “tune in” to what matters?

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