The Surprising Benefit To Multitasking That Every Leader Should Know
Multitasking may not actually be as bad as we’ve made it out to be.
Up until now, science (and experience) has told us that multitasking is either impossible or inefficient. It might seem, then, that the most productive teams are ones where employees are focused and engaged on one task. But according to new research published by marketing professors from Wharton and Yale last fall, this may not be the case. The experiments showed that whether or not people were actually multitasking, they performed better at tasks when they perceived themselves to be multitasking. Not only did they perform better, but they were also more engaged. So whether or not multitasking is beneficial to our performance, the illusion of multitasking is.
Put another way, you actually want your employees to think they’re multitasking. Here are four ways to promote the perception of multitasking among employees.
1. Clearly distinguish between multitasking and distractions.
Multitasking is different from being distracted. Multitasking involves a series of tasks each with a specific goal in mind. Responding to a text message might be a task with a…
