So says this article in Red Herring.
Unnecessary interruptions from sources such as instant messaging, spam email, personal phone calls, and idle web surfing cost businesses in the United States up to $588 billion per year, or 28 percent of a knowledge worker’s day, according to a study released Thursday.
Jonathan Spira, the analyst quoted in the article, says, vis a vis communications tools like IM, and cell phones:
“The answer is not to shut them off,” he added. “It’s training people in how to use them, and making knowledge workers and managers aware of the cost. It’s as incumbent on the individual knowledge worker as it is on a manager to manage attention to do the work.”
Awareness by itself is not the answer. What’s needed is a method to rank, filter, and prioritize those interruptions — a me-centric communications model that puts control of communications back in the users hands.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
