Get Focused

One of the best things coaches do with clients is to focus attention. Apart from an awareness of what is happening in the here and now, no real change is possible. In coaching we seek a judgment-free awareness, also called mindfulness, in order to promote mobility. When the mind is distracted or filled with evaluations of what "should" be, we push ourselves and others in ways that are counterproductive to learning and growth. Only through judgment-free noticing do we gain the freedom to play around and learn from experience.

This past week one of my clients sent me a link to Maggie Jackson's New York Times blog entry regarding her new book: Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. Here's the link:

http://shiftingcareers.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/attention-must-be-paid

I encourage you to read the book if you're ready to go deeper. Two startling factoids: (1) The average knowledge worker switches tasks every three minutes, and once distracted, takes nearly half an hour to resume the original task. (2) Interruptions and the requisite recovery time now consume 28 percent of a worker’s day.

What does Jackson recommend? "The first step is to learn to speak a language of attention. The exciting news is that the enigma of attention has just begun to be mapped, tracked and decoded by neuroscientists who now consider attention to be a trio of skills — focus, awareness and executive attention. Think of it this way: You can be "aware" that you’re in a beautiful garden and then you can "focus" on an individual flower. The last piece, "executive attention," is the ability to plan and make decisions."

The coming dark age is not inevitable; not, that is, if we learn to cultivate a "renaissance of attention". And that gives me a whole new frame about how to think about our work in the world as coaches. We are the handmaidens of attention and that, I submit, is a destiny work claiming.

Coaching Inquiries: Where is your attention right now? How could you bring it back to here and now? What evaluations are running through your head about what's good and what's bad? How could you set those aside in favor of what's happening? How could you become fascinated with the present moment, whether you like it or not? Who could join with you in this "renaissance of attention"?

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