The use of two types of targeting ​

In your activities, you will use both associative and conceptual focusing of attention. In this case, associative focusing will occur more often: it operates on a more powerful S1, which works most of the time. And if this is not taken into account, attempts to focus conceptually may fail.

S1 is more powerful but operates on automatisms and patterns. This means that during a conversation, a person playing a role may react in a patterned way, out of habit. For example, if a leader is used to closely monitoring the work of employees (because he mostly worked with newcomers), then when working with more qualified personnel, he may try to apply the same level of control - which will lead to conflict: qualified and disciplined employees require less intense monitoring compared to newcomers. Inappropriate control intensity may demotivate employees: firstly, because it will distract them from performing their tasks without adding quality or speed to the work; secondly, because employees will feel like they are treated as newcomers, expect unwarranted nitpicking, fear that promotion is being delayed, and so on. And this may happen not because the leader deliberately chose overly tight control - but simply because he acted "on autopilot"! S2 did not even engage when the team changed, the leader continued to act with familiar methods out of the best intentions.

So how do we prevent S1 from derailing us? It is not possible to constantly work with S2 engaged: it is a very energy-intensive brain system, its working time during the day is limited (think about your productive capacity during the day), and it can be easily disrupted by new inputs that need to be processed, fatigue, hunger, mood swings. Therefore, it is necessary for S2 to at least engage at the right time, to help focus conceptually - and then S1 would pick up the necessary objects and allow the operations with them to be completed.

Accordingly, with the help of S2, we choose the focus of attention (focus on an important object or de-focus in the background), with the help of S1 we consolidate the focusing and "steer": bring the focus back to the necessary objects. For example, we choose the role of team leader and take into account that the employees in the current team are more qualified - which means that changes need to be made to the methods of working with them (including control methods).

In other words, activate S2:

• When planning to perform a task,
• When considering how to perform a task (searching or creating a role practice/algorithm for task execution),
• When making decisions,
• In the course of all other activities when something goes wrong (for example, a conflict occurs).

For example, you need to plan your workday or week in the calendar. You choose a role, for example, an operations manager, and decide which projects and tasks from the queue will be taken on. Prioritize: for example, if there are unfinished projects or tasks that have not been completed to deliverable status, they should be included in the "high priority" list (to complete the unfinished work and have the opportunity to start a new task instead of getting more and more new work). When performing this task, you definitely need to engage S2; otherwise, there is a risk of not planning important tasks (and later get them as hidden tasks), forget about unfinished work or miss deadlines. Therefore, it is necessary to consciously assume the role and check yourself after delivering the deliverable - planned according to the time slots in the calendar or task list in the planner. Ideally, the calendar or planner should also indicate the key role that you will play during this time slot, allowing you to mentally prepare for performing specific functions at a specific time of day.

Then, when you perform the planned tasks, you don't need to think about what to do next (if no new inputs arrive). In other words, you do not need to make multiple decisions simultaneously:

1. Which project or task from the queue to work on;
2. When to start a specific task;
3. Which role to play;
4. What deliverable should be produced;
5. Whether the selected deliverable can be completed within the specified time (has enough time been allocated, or does more time need / does a shortened version of the deliverable need to be made);
6. Which objects of attention to work with;
7. Which role practice (work execution algorithm) to choose;
8. The sequence for performing operations with objects according to the practice;
9. Are enough efforts applied;
10. Is the completed deliverable ready for delivery.

If you plan your workload in advance, points 1-5 can be thought out during planning. And when you actually start performing the planned tasks, you need to think about points 6-10. It is easier to focus on fewer aspects at a time.

Furthermore, S2 should be activated when taking on an unfamiliar role or performing an unfamiliar role practice (implementation algorithm, performing operations with selected objects). For example, when you are acting as an architect for the first time and planning the architecture of a product. Or, perhaps not for the first time, but until you have sufficient qualifications and feel uncertain describing the architecture. Accordingly, special attention should be given to choosing important objects of attention when creating a quality architecture, selecting operations and performing them in the specified sequence. And, of course, it is important to ensure that the completed deliverable is ready for delivery.

While performing fairly familiar, well-known work from a long-standing role, you can delegate a lion's share of this work to S1: for example, quickly filling out budget reports, or quickly identifying disputed product hypotheses at the marketeer. Or common mistakes from students.

A significant portion of employees' workload should be familiar and predictable. This allows the company to work systematically at a certain rhythm/cadence, rather than sporadically. Also, when a role is regularly performed by employees, typical functions are carried out there. For example, a salesperson must regularly make cold calls or meet with clients; a developer programmer must write code for a new feature; a designer must design another bridge; an administrator must handle the first, second, third, and so on projects; a teacher must conduct classes for groups. Consequently, if there are typical functions, there should also be typical tasks assigned to these functions. And if these typical tasks must be completed by a specific time, at least the execution of these typical tasks can be roughly planned in the calendar. Then employees can get used to assuming these typical roles and over time streamline the execution of tasks related to these roles with S1. S2 should be left for the 20% most important investment tasks.

If your employees are overloaded with one-time tasks, they will need to activate S2 much more often - even for tasks that could be automated with better work organization. For example, they will need to think about where to get the budget figures for the requested report, instead of following a predefined algorithm to complete the task. Moreover, a significant part of the workload can be moved towards planned, even in knowledge projects, where there is more uncertainty compared to more predictable production. Therefore, check your workload and think about what tasks need to be planned in the calendar as "systematic".

When making decisions, S2 will also need to be engaged: you will need to model the consequences of making a certain decision - or rejecting it. Once you choose the preferred consequences and make a decision, you don't have to spend weeks wondering whether it was right: either you implement the decision or you adjust it after an audit. S2 is activated when making a decision, during an audit, or when making adjustments - but if everything looks good, there is no need to spend additional S2 resources. For example, you conduct an audit of your projects and decide to abandon three of those you planned to implement - because you are already overloaded, and according to the principle of concentricity, it is better to optimize at the output rather than at the input. Then you select control points to audit the decision - and between them, invest S2 resources into something more useful than useless worrying about whether you did the right thing.

S2 is also activated when things go wrong. For example, when a conflict occurs, or when you have a vague feeling of "something is not right" (we will call it fuzz). In this case, continuing to operate with the patterns provided by S1 uselessly: they have already proven insufficient, their use has already led to a problem. The problem needs to be solved by engaging S2.

S1 can hinder this (for example, if you don’t give up the pattern that didn’t work). But with the help of S1, on the contrary, you can make it easier to work with S2 by designing a path for cameras of attention in advance.

For example, if you need to take on the role of a chef, you can prepare in advance the apron, ingredients, knives, cutting boards - so that these objects capture your attention and, through associations, focus on cooking lunch. It is better to plan your work in the calendar with an open calendar, as well as a list of projects and planned tasks. Dancers and athletes change into dance/sports clothing, come to a dance/sports hall, turn on the music - "setting the mood" for playing the role.

In the workplace, leave only the items necessary for completing tasks. For example, only lay out on the desk the paper reports needed for the current task - and store the rest in the desk drawer. The same goes for the phone (to prevent distractions from producing the deliverable). During meetings, it is convenient to display the meeting agenda on a shared screen: it helps keep the attention of all participants on the subject of discussion. Also, at the beginning of a meeting, it is sometimes recommended to engage in a little small talk: a brief discussion of "how are you," which allows participants to relieve tension from the meeting and get in a working mindset.

You can also make more "subtle" adjustments. For example, if you realize that you have a habit of endlessly scrolling through the news feed on social media, you can install applications like one sec (blocking access to social media) or minus.app (interrupting the use of social networks). Also, you can remove the social networking icons from your view: hide the icons on a distant desktop in a folder, so as to see them as rarely as possible, and also spend extra seconds and efforts to access them each time. In other words, make automatic use of social media as difficult as possible. Instead, focus on useful applications like a calendar, a task planner, or an application where you keep disappearing notes.

More subtle adjustments can also be implemented within a team. For example, if team members have trouble meeting project deadlines, you can literally flood the background with reminders of project deadlines. For example, print and display a large work schedule plan conspicuously, so the attention of the team is inevitably drawn to the deadline. Or, if the company aims to become more customer-oriented, but the transition to customer orientation is slow, you can create a customer avatar, print it out, and display it in departments where there are problems with focusing on the customer. Or even take individual photos of customers and print them out. Robert Cialdini confirms that this works. In this way, you can perform Self-Focusing (designing a path for personal cameras of attention), as well as do this for others (Focusing on You, Focusing on Them).

Therefore, use S2 to increase the accuracy of focusing attention, and S1 - to increase speed. And first use S2 so you don't focus on the wrong objects. For example, the chef doesn't get lost staring at flowers on the table and transition to the role of a designer. Then strive to increase the speed of working with objects - with the right objects. There is no point in speeding up if you are doing the wrong thing. Otherwise, you may find that instead of swimming quickly to the shore, you are swimming further into the sea faster.