Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1116895
80 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2019 A very sobering fact is that in six short years, millennials will make up around 50% of the global working population. And with our ev- er-increasing culture of information overload that we have all been subjected to since the mobile revolution began, you may have over- looked news about shrinking attention spans. While millennials seem to be the subject of much of the reporting on Digital-Age atten- tion spans, the effect can be seen across all age ranges. How can you train anyone in this envi- ronment? Read on to find out. Diminishing Attention Spans A 2015 Microsoft study of 2,000 Canadian participants was conduct- ed using electroencepha- lograms (EEGs) to mea- sure brain activity and the average consumption of media information. The research concluded that the average attention span had fallen from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight seconds today, which now means we have a shorter attention span than the average goldfish at nine seconds. In the study, attention span was defined as "the amount of concentrat- ed time on a task without becoming distract- ed." I tried to read the entire 54-page report, but I lost interest. What I do remember is a quote from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella that was very telling. Nadella said, "The true scarce commodity" of the near future will be "human attention." The good news from the report is that our ability to multitask has dramatically improved in the mobile age. But the bad news is that people with heavy screen time find it more difficult to filter out irrelevant stimuli and are more easily distracted by multiple streams of media. Combining the already difficult job of train- ing people for our industry with an eight-sec- ond attention span results in a seemingly im- possible task. Today's workers are faced with unlimited distractions around them at all times from entertainment to social media. The bot- tom line is that many people find it difficult to grasp and retain informa- tion delivered in lengthy or continuous formats. What Can You Do? You can leverage tech- nology, which is easy to say but harder to do. To- day, some people would rather text the person in the next cubical than walk over and talk face- to-face. Others want to make all of their purchas - es online, and get their entertainment and social engagement through their phones, tablets, or computers. There is a lesson to be learned from studying this behavior that can be applied to training; make it visual, provide it electronical - ly, and break it into short increments. Help Wanted! How to Train New Employees in Today's Digital World The Right Approach by Steve Williams, THE RIGHT APPROACH CONSULTING