What happens when attention spans hit zero?

“This is taking too long.  I’m bored.” – overheard from a participant in a recent 50 minute workshop

I just presented at a string of conferences and meetings, and a disquieting trend is headed our way.  Our collective attention span is trending toward a smaller number every day. Now?  10 seconds.  Soon?  Zero.

I would have said this is changing every year, but this is happening faster than that.  I’m well equipped to keep up, as I am probably slightly ADD, but it means we will have to shift how work is defined, and how people are a part of organizations.  It also puts pressure on me, the presenter, to keep moving, keep changing, and turning up the entertainment part of my platform skills.

We will also need to face facts – the speed of adaptive abilities will become a differentiator between organizations.  There are people who are not wired with short attention spans, and they need to be in positions that reward exactly that.  Every pot has a lid, and management will need to add attention span to the core competencies that fit modern jobs.

And, in the modern world, this is about the right length for a blog post.

Tomorrow, slightly shorter.

Back in the day, this was pretty high tech. No auto correct, no cursor, and you had to THINK before you committed a letter to paper, as there was no turning back…

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