I Hate To Interrupt... (General)

Everyone knows the next word in that phrase. …BUT! Usually that phrase is completed with a variety to reasons that one might think of to interrupt a private conversation, a phone call, or yes, even a meeting. There seems to be a rising epidemic of reasons and/or causes that rise to the level of importance required to interrupt others… or could it be that our society has just become more selfish and rude? Interruptions seem to relay the message that your conversation is not as important as my need to interrupt you. Maybe that should be inserted in the remainder of my opening title. “I hate to interrupt…but your conversation (train of thought, phone call) is not as important as my need to interrupt you.” To improve on this issue, I have begun to ask myself, “Is my question something that I absolutely need to know the answer to right now? or can it wait? Additionally, I have begun to take notice of the number of people who walk into my office (uninvited) and stand in front of my desk while I am engaged in a business phone conversation… and wait for me to finish! …or actually stand in my doorway while I am engaged in a private meeting, until I ask them how I might assist them… only to find they are looking for directions to the bathroom! (OK … that could be an emergency, but interrupting a private meeting?...could go either way.) Research has shown that when someone deep in thought is interrupted, it can take up to 20 minutes to get back to the same level of concentration, so even though someone may be “just thinking” a knock on the door may cost 1/3 of an hour in production, and you may not get their full attention on formulating an answer. In our efforts to multi-task, and be efficient with OUR time, we may be causing others in our organization to be less efficient with THEIR time by constantly asking them to stop their work to assist us. Sometimes a question or an issue really can wait to be addressed at a mutually productive time, rather than constantly requiring others to tend to our needs when WE want them to. By combining issues and questions into a list and covering them when you both have time might prove to be more efficient and you might even get better quality answers because you are both focused on the items at hand. It may even require setting a meeting time to adequately address the items. Now I am not talking about emergencies here! If the building is on fire, feel free to interrupt everyone in the building, however, if you just want to know if the Magic are in the playoffs, you might want to hold that question for lunchtime. I had a big ending for this blog entry in mind, however, I just got interrupted and now I can’t remember what it was going to be. So, I guess that will be all for this one. Thanks for stopping by to visit!