Driving with the Invisible Man or Woman – the risks of conversations with unseen passengers

First, a quick update on the next show. I’m trying to secure one more new contributor. I can’t tell you who he is at the moment, but if I get him, I think it’ll be worth the delay. If I can’t get him for the show, I still hope to get an interview with him at some stage – to go into our new audio library, which we’re currently busy creating in preparation for a nice shiny new website. I’ll keep you posted on both as we make progress. So to this week’s topic – which actually takes us back to the last programme.

 

In Part 1, with the help of my guests I looked at the ‘multi-tasking myth’; in Part 2, I took the investigation into the specific area of ‘inattentional blindness’; and in Part 5, I outlined the concept of ‘visual listening’ – using our visual imaginations to enhance and enrich conversations with people we can’t physically see.

 

Last week, the results of a study carried out at The University of Sussex backed up the conclusions reached in that show – that listening visually is a powerful tool. As with everything in life, though, there’s a time and a place for it. Researchers found that when a conversation sparks a driver’s visual imagination – which can happen in response to a question as apparently banal as ‘Where did you leave the blue file?’ – talking on a hands-free phone is as distracting as using a hand-held mobile.

 

In the last show, Michael Proulx of the University of Bath pointed out that ‘we have a finite amount of attention’ and visualising as we listen takes some of those limited resources away from what’s happening immediately in front of us. In a safe, static setting, like the office, shifting focus from, say, the computer screen to the person on the phone is a very positive thing.

 

On the road, the positive can easily become a negative, because it sets up a conflict between two demanding tasks – watching the traffic and picturing the expressions etc of an unseen person. So what about conversations with visible people – others in the car? Well, the difference there is that generally, an adult passenger can see what the driver is seeing and respond quickly. I can tell you from personal experience that even if you can’t see the road ahead very clearly, you can still pick up on cues inside the car, from changes in the driver’s focus to the movement of the car itself.

 

Someone who is sitting comfortably somewhere – or possibly dealing with distractions in their own immediate environment – can’t see what’s happening and (unless they are themselves highly skilled in visual listening) may well not pick up on other subtle clues. Distracted drivers tend to experience a kind of inattentional tunnel vision.

 

The Sussex researchers found that those engaged in conversations with invisible people were inclined to focus their eyes on a small central field ahead of them, so missing hazards their peripheral vision should have picked up. The press release quotes one of the researchers, Dr Graham Hole, as saying: ‘Conversations are more visual than we might expect, leading drivers to ignore parts of the outside world in favour of their inner “visual world” – with concerning implications for road safety.’ I’d suggest those implications go beyond the car – and even beyond conversations.

 

People on foot pose similar issues to ‘podestrians’ (described in the last programme by Julian Treasure of The Sound Agency); and as Daniel Kahneman illustrates in his book: ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ even completely internal mental effort on an unrelated problem can impair performance of a cognitively demanding task (like dealing with road or pavement hazards).

 

All this reinforces my own conviction that ‘intelligent communication’ is about so much more than the intellectual content of our conversations. At least as important is our level of understanding of our natural resources and our ability to allocate them intelligently. That includes appreciating that the twenty-first century ‘anywhere, any time’ approach to interaction has its place – but in the wrong place, at the wrong time, it creates costs rather than benefits.

 

We’ll come back to this when we start talking about the next show properly. In the meantime, as always, if you have any:

• Questions
• Comments or
• Communication issues you’d like to chat through

 

come and talk to me! All the details are on the website

‘Does Home Working Work for You?’ – re National Work from Home Day, Friday 20th May 2016

Where were you last Friday – 20th May? No, I’m not trying to get too personal! I’m just wondering whether you took part in National Work From Home Day?

 

To mark the occasion, the TUC released a piece of analysis showing that home working is on the increase. 241,000 more people regularly worked from home in 2015 than in 2005. That’s a rise of 19%. Around 4,000,000 more would like to follow suit, but their employers haven’t caught up with the trend. The TUC press release outlines the benefits, including:

• Costs and time saved on the commute
• Greater control over working hours, and
• More flexibility to fit around caring responsibilities.

 

As I sit here in my home office, I can’t argue with any of those. My commute along the landing this morning took less than ten seconds and cost me absolutely nothing! I’m at my best early in the morning, so I generally start around 7AM. That also enables me to take breaks during the day, to look after my Mum, who’s eighty-nine and disabled.

 

On that last point, though, I think it’s worth sounding a few notes of caution. For those of us with children, aging parents or other dependents, the idea of home working has obvious attractions. Sometimes, it’s the only way even to have a hope of balancing all our conflicting responsibilities; but that doesn’t mean it’s always the easy option. I discovered that, to my cost, in my first year in business, back in 2004. I soon realised that setting my own hours and sticking to them was much easier said than done. Friends and family got the idea that because I was working at home, I was always available – they could pick up the phone or drop in whenever they liked and I could down tools and put the kettle on.

 

After my sister moved to Wales, later that year, she could never quite grasp why I couldn’t drop everything and head up there for a visit every few weeks or so! No, I’m not blaming everyone else – I was quite often guilty of, shall we say, too much flexibility? – allowing a ‘quick phone-call’ to last an hour, or stopping for a ‘quick coffee’ with an unexpected visitor – who was still there two hours later! The truth is that if you’re home alone, it can get pretty lonely – and if other people are around, there are inevitable distractions. Yes, there are distractions in an office etc, but it’s a work environment, so most interruptions are likely to be work-related – and those which aren’t just provide a bit of light relief. At home, the opposite is true.

 

Last time, I was talking about Luke Johnson’s discussion of the work/life balance (or juggling act!) in his ‘Animal Spirits’ column in The Sunday Times. He was looking at the issue of bringing work – especially workplace attitudes – home. I can tell you from experience, that’s an even bigger challenge when your workplace is your home.

 

On my home working days, I often have to switch between professional and personal modes very quickly. One minute I’m focused on competing for a new job – and the next, I have to push that aside and become a patient, empathic carer. Then the phone rings – and I somehow have to get out of the kid gloves and into the professional hat as I answer it! No, I don’t always manage a smooth transition.

 

As I’ve said before, people don’t come with on/off switches – and nor are we fitted with easily adjustable settings! These days, I do have a system; a routine; and when it works, everything flows along quite nicely – but when it doesn’t, it’s all too easy to become overwhelmed – for the already blurred lines between work and personal life to merge completely.

 

I have learnt a few tricks over the last twelve years, though. For instance: I make sure I don’t work at home every day – I need the buzz of the office sometimes. When I’m at home, I dress for work – silly as it may sound, I’m a lot less productive in my pyjamas! and I’ve replaced the commute with exercise. Speaking of which, must run – I’ve got a cross-trainer to catch!

 

If you have any:

• Questions
• Comments or
• Communication issues

 

you’d like to chat through come and talk to me – wherever I happen to be! All the details are on the website.