Four Destructive Myths Most Companies Still Live By

Myth 1: Multitasking is critical in a world of infinite demand.

This myth is based on the assumption that human beings are capable of doing two cognitive tasks at the same time. We’re not. Instead, we learn to move rapidly between tasks.

If you’re on a conference call, for example, and you turn your attention to an email, you’re missing what’s happening on the call. You’re also incurring something called ''switching time.'' That’s the time it takes to shift from one cognitive activity to another.

On average, according to University of Michigan professor David Meyer, switching time increases the amount of time it takes to finish the primary task you’re working on by an average of 25 to 50 per cent. In short, juggling activities is incredibly inefficient.

Myth 2: A little bit of anxiety helps us perform better.

Anxiety may be a source of energy, and even motivation, but it comes with significant costs. The more anxious we feel, the less clearly we think and the more impulsive we become. That has huge implications for supervisors.

As a boss, your energy has a disproportionate impact on those you lead. Any time your behaviour increases someone’s anxiety – or prompts any negative emotions – that employee is less likely to perform effectively.

Myth 3: Creativity is genetically inherited , and impossible to teach.

Our educational system and most company cultures reward rational, analytic left-hemisphere thinking. We pay scant attention to the more visual, intuitive, big-picture capacities of our brain’s right hemisphere.

But as it turns out, the creative process moves back and forth between left and right hemisphere dominance. Creativity is about using the whole brain more flexibly. This process unfolds in a far more systematic way than we imagine. And people can quickly learn to access the hemisphere of the brain that serves them best at each stage of the creative process.

Myth 4: The best way to get more work done is to work longer hours.

Human beings are designed to pulse intermittently between spending and renewing energy. Great performers – and enlightened leaders – recognise that it’s not the number of hours people work that determines the value they create, but rather the energy they bring to whatever hours they work.

Rather than burning down our reservoir of energy as the day wears on, intermittent renewal makes it possible to keep our energy steady all day long. Alternating periods of intense focus with intermittent renewal, at least every 90 minutes, makes it possible to get more done, in less time, more sustainably.

© 2011 Harvard Business Publishing

Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate