According to Harvard and The Energy Project people that are able to focus on one task at a time are 50% more engaged. What this means is that those people were more involved with and passionate about their work.
The same holds true for Innovation. Those individuals who can focus on one task at a time tend to be more innovative. The big question is why?
The answer is simple. Innovation takes time. In order to create something new or change a process in a meaningful way it takes time.
When we innovate we need to play with ideas and concepts, define a future state, test new processes, and more. People innovate when they have the time and space to engage in those efforts.
We also lose time when we take on too much and multi-task. Study after study comes back with the same answer:
- People that multi-task actually lose productive time and the quality of their work decreases.
So in order to truly say yes to an idea we have to say no to others. How are you creating time in space in your organization for people to innovate? How are you creating the time and space for you to innovate?
