To keep attention on changes.
Attention is kept on objects and relationships between them, as well as on changes in objects and relationships. For example, a husband and wife get divorced and are no longer connected as part of a "family". A child finishes school and enters university, changing their status from "school student" to "student".
The longer attention needs to be kept on objects, the more chances there are to see not just one, but a series of changes. An employee is hired by a company, works in one position, then gets a promotion. The system concept is conceived, modeled, tested, refined, and so on.
As discussed in Chapter 3, changes can vary. Some changes are small and quickly implemented, such as changing curtains in a house, while others require more effort, such as changing furniture or wallpaper. Some changes are radical or strategic, such as house redesign. These changes can take place not only in one place (house, company), but in different ones. For example, you can change your personal approach to work planning in the company, or change your approach to organizing personal leisure time. Some changes may occur without your knowledge and outside your control. For example, a strong direct competitor may emerge in the market, causing a decrease in sales. Or the legislation may change - and new reports will need to be prepared urgently for the regulator, requiring the hiring of new employees.
When talking about changes, we will refer to them as a transition of attention states of objects. "Maintaining attention" on changes will mean that necessary objects and their states will be kept in focus until the goal is achieved. For example, if you need to develop a habit of quality rest or plan work more precisely, attention to the practices of rest and planning and their application will need to be maintained until there is an internal sense of wrongness if rest or planning was missed. Often this will take more time than people expect when implementing new habits: on average 66 days, but the period can vary from about 18 days (for simple habits like "drink a glass of water when you wake up") to 254 days, almost 9 months (for complex composite habits that significantly affect lifestyle, for example, the habit of leading a healthy lifestyle). And this is only for an individual; complex organizational changes in a company may take even longer.
For example, when talking about a person, it makes sense to discuss how they maintain attention in a conversation (time scale of the moment, up to 1.5 minutes), during task execution (focus scale), how they distribute attention throughout the day (minimum scale for planning), what can be accomplished in a week (sprint scale), a month, a quarter, a year, etc. When talking about a company, the minimum time scale at which it makes sense to consider activities is the sprint scale, during which a batch of products or a release is issued.
We learn which states of which objects we need to achieve the goal from disciplines or experience (our own and others'). For example, educators interested in motivation in education can learn about the Hensy-Blanchard model. This model describes how motivation changes in the process of acquiring new knowledge.
At the first stage, the motivation for learning is quite high: the student believes that new knowledge will help improve skills or solve a problem, but is slightly afraid of difficulties, can experience some fear of the unknown. At this stage, motivation is above average, and competence is low.
Then the student learns the basics, gradually begins to succeed in simple tasks and their application to life. Motivation grows along with competence.
Then comes the third stage, when the student notes the first major breakthrough thanks to learning. At this moment, the initial practices are already mastered and performed confidently, a broad outlook has appeared. It seems that everything is clear, everything will be easy and fast to learn. However, as they continue to learn, they gradually begin to understand that there is still a lot under the surface, and to become a good specialist, a true master, one needs to learn much longer. At this point, at stage 4, the learner enters a "dead zone": they literally "go blind", the focus of attention no longer captures the growth of skills - because now, unlike the early stages, it grows slower. The student feels like nothing is changing (since progression was happening in leaps), they are not making progress. It is at this point that learners often "drop out": deciding to try their luck elsewhere. Learning English? Let's go learn German or Chinese. Studied 3D modeling? Let's try dancing, it might work better there.
The problem is that the "dead zone" inevitably arises in learning anything, including dancing. And if a person does not go through it time and time again, they cannot achieve mastery anywhere: they literally do not maintain attention on the growth of skills to the qualification of "master". They constantly go for new and new training to go through a "honeymoon" period there, and then start a new "educational migration". As a result, educational tourism ends with partial competence in individual roles - but there is no completed mastery anywhere.
Some people may enjoy living like this - there is nothing wrong with that. But many people seek career advancement, professional recognition, high incomes, and they want all of this to be based on themselves and their competence. Usually, all of this is achieved by masters - meaning that to achieve such results, it is desirable to become a master in one or several roles. For example, people performing the role of a manager often need at least good planning skills, delegation skills, and the ability to control the work execution by employees. This requires knowledge and skills in roles such as planner (operational/project manager, strategist, operational planner), leader (team communication), administrator (administration, work control). To acquire mastery, one needs to study relevant management theories and practice applying the models derived from the theories in work.
At stage 4 of learning, there is a tipping point - when motivation stops decreasing and light is seen at the end of the tunnel. It is at this point that a person sees a significant growth in their mastery: the quality of work products improves, they are produced faster, the person can diagnose problems "on the fly" and suggest good directions for their solution. The individual experiences metanoia - a qualitative change in thinking, after which it is difficult to recall previous difficulties. Instead of "problems" in learning, they begin to see "opportunities", and now they can take advantage of these opportunities. The cycle can then start fresh regarding some new trainings or new changes in professional activity.
Educators studying motivation models in education understand that the "dead zone" will arise. And they can design learning in a way that keeps student attention on learning: first, literally talk about this effect so that students know and can track it; second, outline the consequences so that students can choose whether to continue learning or migrate - consciously. Third, include activities in learning that support motivation, such as regular feedback, during which show the student's mastery growth, as the student may not notice it themselves (their attention is associatively focused on experiences).
Maintaining attention is needed not only to make changes to achieve a goal but also to maintain the result. For example, if a person, performing the role of an athlete, achieves the desired physical form, they can reduce the intensity of training and switch to a "maintenance" mode. This is because if they completely give up training, their physical form will quickly disappear. If city services stop collecting garbage and cleaning the streets, the established order will quickly disappear. Maintaining the desired state usually requires efforts, meaning that attention needs to be regularly kept on it. For example, a leader needs to include regular meetings in the schedule (both their own and the team's) to control work execution and monitor the status of employees (their readiness to perform various tasks).