Selective attention could be described as a “double-edged sword.” It is what allows us to focus our attention on an critical task while “tuning out” things in our environment not having to do with that task. However, it is also what causes us to “miss” stimuli in our environment that might be important. For example, if you are reading through a report looking for a particular type of information to make sure it is written accurately you might miss errors in a different type of information.
“Multitasking” is another area where selective attention can cause negative results–we may think we’re performing at a high level on several tasks at once, but research has shown that it is far more likely that such attempts at multiple tasks will lead to less than ideal results. (We discuss this in Chapter 4 of the book.)
The link below will open a brief YouTube video (in a new tab in your browser) that you can use in a meeting or training session. Watch it before using it to familiarize yourself with its structure and timing so you can pause it for discussion before the end. (For example, this video should be paused at :27 and again at :52.) Be prepared to talk about what lessons it could hold for various aspects of your customer service (or other) operations. Get feedback from your staff about what they think can be gained from this insight. (By the way, there are dozens of similar publicly available videos if you prefer to choose a different one. As with the video below, be sure to familiarize yourself with the sequence of scenes so you can pause the video at the appropriate times to interact with your participants.)
Click here to view the selective attention video in a new tab.