Most of us think "I know what I'm doing." Ask 10 people what separates humans from other animals, and 8 will say that it's the ability to operate consciously - as opposed to other animals that operate based on instinct, lacking intent for their individual actions. But is this indeed the case? Are we really always taking action based on our assessment of the situation we're in, or do we also act automatically?
Major research conducted over the past 40 years found that we all act mindlessly a good deal of the time, running on auto-pilot, and not fully present in our situations. So automatically in fact, that we can engage in non-trivial, time-consuming tasks, and have no recollection of doing them. Sometimes we simply sleepwalk.
Here's a little story about something that recently happened to me at work: My company is on the verge of launching a new major product. A few nights ago, I get an alarmed email from David, our VP Marketing, asking the team which one of us already registered the Twitter user name "LiveHappyApp" - the twitter name we were planning to use.
No one remembers registering that Twitter user, and therefore the next morning we start speculating that one of our competitors "snatched" it. Nevertheless, none of us is actually completely sure that it was not him who registered that new Twitter user, so we try to look at the text entered in this new Twitter page and guess whether it was us who entered it: "hmmm - using a single quote... I usually use double quotes, so it's probably not me... on the other hand - it does look like my grammatical style, so maybe it is..." As expected, it was David himself who did it. He went through this 10 minute process a few days earlier although he still doesn't remember doing it. And - we all could easily be convinced into thinking it was actually one of us.
How is that possible?
How is it possible that four healthy, "normal" people, all trained professionals who make important decisions each day, accept the fact that they can do something without really being aware of it? A task that requires uploading files, creating a new email account, entering a description, etc.
Many people say that the culprit is technology. And even as a technology advocate, I tend to agree that it's a major factor. Our workplaces value productivity and efficiency (easier to measure) as opposed to quality, innovation and creativity (very difficult to measure). So we find ourselves responding to emails, tweeting, and going over RSS feeds while on conference calls.
From now on, as a manager and a techie I will make sure to set expectations in a way that allows people on my team to be fully present and engaged in what they do. And as a techie - to build technologies that will boost our well-being and help increase creativity and innovation. No more sleepwalking on the job!
