How Well Does Your Culture Facilitate Better Focus?
Oct 06, 2024
I was lying flat on my back in the grassy outfield, trying to come around. I had drifted back from my third-base position for the Little League team White Sox into shallow left field to catch a fly ball. I missed the ball with my glove and instead caught it with my forehead.
Someone said, “Son, you’ve got to keep your eye on the ball.”
Little comfort when your head is killing you and your ego is dead with embarrassment.
And you find out later that regardless of how much you keep your eye on the ball, it won’t help.
I needed glasses. I couldn’t focus.
How do you know when your focus is off at work? That you’re not catching the work plays that come your way?
What does your work culture do to facilitate better focus?
Here are three strategies to create a culture of better focus:
Deflect Distractions
For some people, the sky falls daily no matter how positive your work culture.
You know who they are. You cringe when they walk towards you. You sigh when they come up on Caller ID. You roll your eyes and wonder, “What now?” when their Slack message pops in.
Deflect these distractions of negativity with my 2-Step:
Step 1: Grab the handle
What can you learn from this Chicken Little? You can discover a lesson…at least that the sky fails to fall daily like some people say.
Step 2: FLUSH!
Flush the negativity, and any distracting emotions with them. Clean your mental bowl often. Yes, multiples flushes are required sometimes.
You facilitate a culture of better focus as you give permission to top performers to practice this 2-step. When your culture is psychologically safe, they will trust you with their reactions and seek your guidance in how best to respond.
They are really asking you to do something about this Chicken Little. Address this person now. Their behavior continues until you redirect them.
Develop a culture that deflects distractions.
Define Reality
You can imagine your work culture at its best. Or, you can worry. Same mental function which means it’s impossible to do both simultaneously.
Dale Carnegie once said, “If you can't sleep, get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. The worry gets you, not the lack of sleep.”
Define your current culture reality and move forward. See it for what it is. Note areas of excellence. Deal with pockets of negative resistance. Such definition motivates you to redefining action.
Worry distracts you; moves you sideways at best and paralyzes you at worst.
Timeline your positive work culture renovations. Do them one step at a time.
Develop a culture that defines reality.
Do the Unfamiliar
Change your culture’s routines and you force team members to focus. They naturally pay closer attention because they’ve marched off of their mental map.
They must think now about what they’re doing and how they’re doing it because something changed. Your culture encourages creative innovation which emerges from the disruption of the familiar.
Rearrange your culture with little, unfamiliar things first. Change morning routines. Restructure meeting agendas.
When you deflect distractions, it’s unfamiliar.
When you define reality, it could be unfamiliar to you, also.
Develop a culture that does the unfamiliar.
To facilitate a culture of better focus, encourage team members to:
- deflect distractions,
- define reality, and;
- do the unfamiliar.
What’s your question about how to create a positive work culture? Ask Dr. Joey here
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