S3, Ep.1 - Restructuring in 2026: Leadership, Team Dynamics, and Change That Actually Sticks (S3 Premiere)

[Pause] >> Facational Sherlocks, the podcast for Business Meet Psychology and your organizational puzzles meet their match. >> Join us for captivating stories and practical solutions to unravel your toughest challenges. >> I'm Dr. Elizabeth Fleming. >> And I'm Morgan Ashworth. Your guides to a prescription for business success. >> Well, let's dive in. >> Well, now that we're in the second episode of our season, I think it's time to get into the nitty-gritty Elizabeth. What do you think? >> Yeah, I think so. There's been a lot of my mind recently, so I think the topic today is going to probably fit quite well. >> I'm sure, I'm sure. I mean, from the managers and owners out there probably thinking of year end, that they're still finishing up at tax season versus all the new plans that come with the new year, and new developments and whatnot. I think it definitely is a great topic, because what are we doing except multi-tasking when we're thinking of all these projects we want to launch in the new year, right? >> Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. I know I had mentioned to you offline before we jumped in, but I think about it too, just for our remote employees, how multi-tasking or task jumping or whatever term we want to use for it is probably a pretty common occurrence for them, especially being remote and at home or not in a space where you're kind of solely dedicated to the -- or the -- that your brain space is not solely dedicated to whatever project is your work. >> Yeah, definitely. I'd actually like to start by asking our listeners to think about it, but then I'll have you answer is, is there really such thing as multi-tasking? >> This would be a very plain insert some game music while people think. So I'll just talk randomly. I know, I would say, wouldn't that be good. But, yeah, I will answer. This is actually a topic I've had a lot of conversations with people about because, you know, there's the kind of the whole thing, the whole, you know, women are better than men at multi-tasking and badadada. Okay, like I've heard it my entire life, I think it's really interesting. And being in the psychology world, I think it is also something we have to just kind of keep in mind that multi-tasking, the way that we understand it is not actually multi-tasking. It's really more context-sweetening, right? I mean, to be thinking about two opposite areas of your work or your life at the exact same time and being able to be fully invested in either one at the exact same time is just not possible. You know, and it's just rapid context switching is kind of how I like to look at it. I don't know how do you think about it. You know, I would agree with you. I think that, you know, there is, there is the term multi-tasking out there and that's the idea that you're working on multiple different items at once or thinking of multiple different things at once, but you're really not. You're more often than not jumping between the different tasks that you're doing. And so you have to, you know, switch the context of what you're focusing on in your mind. So I would argue that a good multi-tasker is really someone that just has a has a higher and faster capability to switch between context. Absolutely. Yeah. I would agree with you. I mean, I think it's, we think about just cognitive load in general and how much we're able to kind of keep in our awareness at any given time. And, you know, again, I was sharing with you earlier that, you know, I think about like I work remotely a lot. So of course that's on my mind, you know, how much, how much dedication and time can I give it to any particular thing throughout the day. And so I have strategies that I use that I've found to be really effective when I'm working at home versus when I'm working at the university and actually in the office, right. But I know that even though I had my day planned for the most part tomorrow, my kids don't have school because it's way too golden Minnesota. So because of that, that is going to lead to I think more of this multi-tasking or context with shame because if anyone I have our listeners has kids oftentimes, you may or you may have had this experience, but it's usually mom. I'm hungry or mom. I need to do this or mom, I want you to, you know, turn the TV on or whatever it is. It's really hard to maintain focus when that happens, even though I love happening around. So. Yeah, so definitely can be hard to maintain focus on one task and any type of work environment, even in life, you know, just cleaning the laundry like, folding laundry. And I think, oh, I have to do this too. I have to do this too. As they as a joke when you're neurodivergent, you end up leaving tasks and finish right and then you're like, you come back to it later and you're like, oh, yeah, I was doing that. And so all in all, if you're better at context, switching you won't necessarily forget about that task you left unfinished compared to compared to someone who's less, who's not as apt to context switch. I'd like to start by kind of going through our listeners like just the true definition behind context switching. So context switching and task jumping are used pretty synonymously. Overall, they're the act of moving between unrelated tasks without completing the first one. So kind of sounds like multitasking, but it's the idea of switching between tasks and not completing something while multitasking is just about doing multiple tasks at once. Right. So I just want to spend really quick because the night of this is interesting. I was clearly just context switching for a second because as you're reading the definition, I was thinking, it's kind of like the projects that we do on our house, don't ever get one completely finished before we do the next. But that's just a total. I think it's fun. I had to say that someone that's good at context switching. I like to think of like the subconscious mind and you know a lot of times that subconscious mind is allowing you to come up with spontaneity, spontaneous ideas for your innovation mindset kind of sets. And so all and all to me is someone that's good at context switching is just is more capable of pulling from the subconscious more quickly because when you switch context or switch tasks, the other one kind of goes back into your subconscious. But when you switch back to that task from another one you're doing, it's more easily pullable from your subconscious. So there's a faster cognition going on. Kind of like a really well organized cloud folder. Right. Like you know where to go to get the information versus one that's really disorganized or kind of all over the place. Yes, very similar to that, but I don't think you're necessarily pulling from a file in your brain, but it is. It's like to organize themselves, right? Yeah, I think it's a thing of our brains like a big library where you know where things are and sometimes you don't. But all right, I'll stop taking us on weird kind of analogies or metaphors and things too. I mean, I feel like I'm kind of metaphors are a great way to really understand concepts. So who are you about that? Although I feel like talking about context switching is so important to the overall framework of what we talk about here organizational Sherlocks for talking about organizational development and a lot of times in that is changed management. Well, while we are conducting change management, we have to oversee many different areas at the same time. And top of that, see how the areas interact with one another. So we're constantly context switching and jumping between the tasks from this team to this team or this test to this test, but then also combining them in some ways. Yeah, one, you know, while I'd like to think that change management because you know you brought that topic up, well, I'd like to think it's there's, you know, the one right way to do it or some people kind of. You know, maybe adhere to one model over another model right and add car model or process or whatever it is that you use. And I think that's great, but what we don't always think about in change management and I think it's really important is that change management involves people. And people are not, you can't predict everything that they're going to do say feel experienced right and so you have to in my mind enter into a level or into an engagement or a change management process with a bit of openness and willingness to context switch right because you never know you just don't know what the reaction or the feeling or the experience is going to be from the people around you. Yeah, that is so true. You have to contact switch when you're working with people because oftentimes you enact some sort of behavior that then gets a reaction back and it might not be the reaction you're expecting. You might have expected pause a reaction, but then you get a negative one in turn. And so then you have to reorganize your mind in a way to approach it in a different way than you originally planned to. And I actually think about you know something that just happened recently, you know, a process changed unfortunately tried to happen a little unilaterally. It wasn't the original intentions supposedly, but there was kind of a lot of back and forth between was this is this corrective action in nature that we have to fix something. But no, this is actually a really good idea of what the change is and so there was a lot of tasks switching between emotions, emotions themselves. Well, there's a lot of jumping between them to really understand the overall effect of this process change that was happening. Absolutely. Yeah. When I think you can flip it on the other way too. Like I know you were saying that you think you might know how someone reacts to that you don't, right? Or positive to negative. I think it would be negative positive. You might be anticipating that this change is going to cause just massive issues in the team or the organization or whatever it is. And then you get there to introduce it and it's like, oh, yeah, let's give it a shot. So while you were intending to kind of use so much mental energy to try to explain the why and the purpose and the value and all of those things, you might not have to do that as much, right? So again, switching to, okay, now I'm not trying to convince people. Now we're kind of in a different space. We have to figure out what that space looks like. Yes. I agree with that. And I think that's on the more positive end of like one year, you have to contact switch between something. You're saving energy. But oftentimes when we're context switching, we're actually extending more energy than we would have. We're just focused on one task or for things unfolded the way we expected them to. Yeah, I kind of think of it a little bit. Okay. I said I was going to stay away from like metaphors. I'm not. I'm going to keep going on it. I think our listeners know that I do that a lot right now. I think I think that way. Like I think of, I tie it to things people understand. Anyway, it makes me think of kind of the duck metaphor, right, where like the duck is, looks really calm on the water. And yet they're paddling their feet really, or their feet, whatever. They're under the water, right? They're paddling really hard. And it makes me think about that because even in a positive situation where again, people, you know, they may respond by saying, this is great. Let's keep going. There's still a level of paddling going on of, well, what do I do next? I thought I was going to do this and now I have to do this and where do I need to go? And well, you might not be showing that to people. I think that's what's happening in the back of our mind, right? And to your point, it's using that energy, that mental energy, right? And at the same time, not really allowing us to be in the moment, right? And so that's a consideration that I think about a lot too, especially when things are really high value or high risk or whatever it is. You know, I need to find a place where I can not be paddling under the water. Yeah. You know. Yeah, I agree with that. And actually, it makes me think of just something from my own work life today. You know, I was super focused in on a project, really trying to get something done. So all of my energy is focused on this project. I honestly, like, can't wait for it to be after hours for the office so that I can focus without getting interrupted. This is actually where I'm at with the project. It was. I got interrupted and I don't feel like I was able to give my full amount of energy to this question that I was asked. And so I kind of gave in half answer, not a full answer. And then that caused different effects to happen with others in the company. And so then I had to completely contact switch, completely jump tasks, stop the project I was working on, push it to the side and meet with people that then affected and say, no, it's not the answer that I meant to give. I'm like, I like, I was giving you some context, like, but that you took it into different direction than I meant for him to go. And it's solely because I was so mentally focused on a project. Now I did warn them. My mental is focused on this project right now. And again, I have no problem contact switching usually. But I also just got home from a 3D trade show where I was on for the whole entire day, except for when I was sleeping. And it becomes so again, that mental load can have an effect. And even I look back and I look back at myself and I say, hey, I should have truly made sure to jump tasks instead of giving half energy to the other tasks. And then when I have the energy again, go back to the project. So it's important to recognize even ourselves when we need to prevent distractions or reprioritize and set the item you are working on, the task you're working on aside, if your mental energy truly does need to be somewhere else. Absolutely. Yeah, I'd say, you know, I've been doing more work recently with the university that I teach at and kind of helping to review applications for the next cohort to come into the doctor program, right? So for anyone who's curious, this is a thing that I read every single application, right? It's not something that's thrown through AI or whatever people think, right? I'm reading everything. But there's a lot of intention behind that because I know on average, it takes me anywhere from 20 to 35 minutes to read each application, right? And so knowing that I have made it very clear in my mind that I'm going to be reasonable about how many I can do without interruption, right? Because for me, it's really hard to start reading one or reading what's going on, going through the application and then have to come back to it after doing something else. It kind of takes me out of my zone, if you will, or that my flow zone or whatever you want to call it. And so that's just an example for me recently where I have been choosing to block time. So there are two hours here for me to simply review applications. And then I can switch to a different space, right? Which is totally fine and work on my business for two hours or whatever it might be. And so for me, having that focus time is incredibly important. So I know I alluded to that in the beginning that I managed through these things in certain ways. That's a huge part of what I do. So when I jokingly say I live by my calendar, I'm not really joking. So for anyone who works with me, I don't know that. I'm not really joking. I live by my calendar. And so when I say focus time, check before scheduling, I really mean that because I need that. So that I'm not content-catching. You know? Yeah, I think that's a wonderful thing to do. So far enough, we've actually just done through the primary three strategies to combat contact switching or not just comb thating that, but just comb thating the mental fatigue that comes along with it. And that includes turning off distractions or removing distractions when you can. I'm blocking. I'm a huge time blocker on my calendar. And creating a priority that I have to do list. I live by to do lists, actually. So my calendar is mostly for meetings and whatnot. But I know that I need to have at least four hours, not in meetings a day to focus on what I need to get done. Also, always something that's going to come up and take some time away. So I really look to have no more than two hours of meetings a day. These meetings could include performance evaluations, they could include coaching sessions, they could include just a touch-based meeting, things along those lines. So I can go in multiple different meetings, but they're always purposeful. They're not. They're never those corporate, you know, just have a meeting to have a meeting. But I do check and I will say, no, I don't have time on my calendar for Tuesday. I have plenty of time slots on Tuesday, but I don't have time in a sense of my calendar already had a few meetings. I don't have time to have another one if I want to get any of the most personal work done. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think it's important that it's also boundary setting in some ways. And I think we talked about that before slightly in one of the last season. But I think setting those boundaries is also really important. Of course, I want to be someone who is there and willing to help everyone. And I will for the most part, right? And there's days where I need to set a boundary and just say, like, I'm doing my whole day. My whole day is going to be focused on this thing, whatever it might be. So I'll even tell you that when I'm working with clients, doing client engagements, that's a huge thing for me. I don't have my phone out on the table. You know, if we're doing a team engagement, I don't put my phone out on the table. If somebody needs to get a hold of me, if it's an emergency, you know, they know where I am, they can get a hold of me, it will be fine. But I do that so that I'm not distracted and that I'm really present in what's happening in the room with my clients. And I think that is important. And it also shows, you know, that I value my clients and all of everything. But it also allows me just to say present and provide the best service I can. Yeah. And I think this is all really important to take into consideration when you're looking at change management because one, you need to prioritize what that change management track is, you know, what is the path that you're actually taking to do this change management? You can't just start it and expect it to go the way you want it to without having a plan because you need to prioritize the steps. Then on top of that, you need to block time to go after the different areas of change management, whether that be the physical creation of something within a project or the building the buy-in from affected team members and stakeholders all the way through ensuring that there is touch bases to see how the role I was going to get feedback on that roll out. So you have to look and time block and plan the little individual areas that you need within that change management program to ensure one, it happens according to plan and it's actually an effective change management, but two, that there isn't a lot of fatigue going on, not just in yourself as the manager of that change, but of the others involved in that system. If you don't prioritize and you don't time block properly, then we're going to see issues with the executive functions that people are having. We're going to see the attention residue that occurs when you're switching between one task to the next, where one task kind of, the last task kind of blocks areas of the current one or distracts you from it. So we need to make sure that there is focused time and sometimes just being unavailable for people or ensuring that a team is unavailable while they're going through something is pertinent to ensuring that change goes according to plan. For example, again, cross-training. We have a cross-training change management going on right now. So we're doing some cross-training. We want people to have an understanding of their effect on another department and vice versa. So that there's just a better alignment between the two. And so there is true blocked time for that training where they don't have to do their current workload and nor are they going to be bothered with that workload. It can wait until they return nor is it rushed once they return. And then the person training is ensuring to get workloads done so that they're not thinking of all the tasks they have to get done in that production department actually a manufacturing department so that they can focus on the training itself. And then even before that there was a plan that was built for the training. There was a reason that there were so many hours given per day because of the availability of time blocking how much time can you really go without getting distracted or interrupted just like Elizabeth was talking about. Absolutely. I'll give you one that just so strategy that sounds maybe the most simple thing on the planet. Maybe everyone in the world does it and it's not all that unique. But you mentioned like meetings that you go to that are more maybe less purposeful or whatever. You know, having an agenda and reviewing that agenda before you go to the meeting helps with this because I don't know if any of our listeners have been in moments or situations where maybe you're in a meeting or a conversation and someone says something and you go, I don't know if that is right. And so then you're quickly going on Google and looking what is this thing or whatever. Well, then you're not active listening, not participating in, you know, into your context, switching in that moment. So something I found that really is helpful for me too is just making sure I look at the agenda. If there isn't one I worked to create one so that I can do my free work. I'll show up in a way where I'm actually fully invested in the conversation because I have the understanding that doesn't take that long. I, you know, realistically it doesn't take. And so I don't know if there is really important. And part of that preparation is either an agenda or you might even as someone attending not, you know, distributing the meeting is you might get a list of questions or a list of tasks to bring or items to bring to the meeting. Or even physical items, you know, being in a manufacturing world or constantly with real products that we're bringing with us to. And so it's important to come prepared. Honestly, I will say that I think managers, including myself will sometimes test if you will come to meetings prepared. Because I like out two questions. I want your, I want my team to come with these two things. And then this is what the meeting is going to be about. But I'm telling them to come with two things to the meeting. And not only giving them the agenda, but I want to see if they're already in the mental space to have this meeting. Interesting. I can't say I've ever done that, but I can see where I might be beneficial. Are we meeting? I don't know. Maybe not like consciously. I'm sure I have though. I do try to give people things. I had a time, but you know, I would say I do that simply because if we start the meeting with some simple questions of like that they should have had the answer to because they had the questions ahead of time. And I don't see that they're prepared. Then I already am prepared to context switch to meeting and say, OK, based off of our agenda, do you guys still feel comfortable meeting today or are you feeling too busy today? Did you have too much in the last day to get a hold of this meeting? Not that I ever wanted to delay something if I can avoid it. But I've got oftentimes what I will do is I give them the deck for the meeting my slide deck. I give it to them and I say, OK, I want you to now review my slide deck and then we'll have a more conscious meeting altogether or one on one. I will switch the process of which I was going to have my meeting even. Yeah, I want to think it's also setting expectations. What does this look like and what is just in general, you know, what kind of team meetings do we have or one-on-one meetings do we have and all that. I think that's really powerful. There's definitely a mental effort behind context switching, all in all or task jumping, right? Because it's not true multitasking. Very, very few people, if any, can multitask. There's just some people that are better at context switching than others and those people, but that doesn't mean that those people are any less likely to get burnt out to have a more mental fatigue to lose productivity and focus. Right? Someone that is good at context switching might actually have difficulty with burnout, mental fatigue, etc. More than others. Even if their productivity looks good soon, you'll see an effect. Well, I mean, and I know for the sake of not making this conversation as long as, you know, I'm sure we could talk about it all day, but I will say to I think the completion of tasks is something that is rewarding for people at times. So that is also from a productivity standpoint, something to consider and as a leader may be encouraging. You know, what can I do? How can I help you? You know, if you're talking to a team member, how can I help you to get to the end of this project? You know, what would it look like? Do you need me to walk time for you? Do you need me to set boundaries? Do you need me to take down any kind of barriers that are around? Like, what does that look like? Well, yes, context switching, I think is there is no is definitely a personal thing. It's an individual thing. There are ways that leaders can have a really profound impact by creating a culture and an environment that allows people that focus time and actually empowers them to use it in a way that is beneficial for them. Even though we know we're talking a lot about our own kind of context switching, just again, know that as leaders, owners of organizations, whatever your title is, you have the potential to help others by giving them the space to really focus in and not have to switch us on. I think that goes a long way for leaders that even goes a long way for the individuals on the floor because if you give people the time to focus, then they're going to ultimately become more autonomous. So they're more likely to self-problem solve self-decision make on those things that they can do rather than needing to go to you for every little thing. People that don't need to context switch as much to usually can complete projects more timely and more independently. I'm sure even managers, you know, we have to context switch a lot. And so within that, I'm sure many successful managers, myself included, when I need to have like a difficult conversation or a coaching conversation, even coaching conversation could be positive, but still a little difficult, right? I write down notes of what I want to get out of it and usually I'll have the person come with questions, unless it's like a corrective situation that they're not expecting it. But I still will write down my notes of what I'm going to talk to them about and why. And then also I think about how the other person will react positive or negative. I tend to use the phrase hope for the best prepare for the worst and so that you all ready to to context switch based off of that person's emotion even. So you can have more ways that you can take the meeting and I actually write them down and funny enough I coached another individual to do it this way. I can kind of tell it was working for her and that is the primary way that she has conversations with someone whether they be training, corrective, coaching or simply review based performance based. Yeah. So she got down and prepares for the different emotions you could see to come out of them. Well, it's considering a situation from all angles, you know, and I think that that's true again, whether you're going to performance conversation or a strategic decision or whatever it is. It's challenging yourself to think about alternative ways or things or or reactions and all of the different spaces and really just thinking about it holistically and I think that's really helpful. I'd argue it prevents us from making assumptions, but even then if we do have an expectation to spot like that in the assumption right if we do still have that any assumption we've written down those ways and so even at that point actually becomes easier to switch context so I would say. Yeah. Well, and I think it's a great learning moment for the leader as well, you know, if it didn't go the way that you thought it was going to go why you know and it's a great time for reflection and you know going through all that. So. Well, what do you think about wrapping up for today and we have a again a lot of really great episodes that are coming in the future some really great guests. I was looking through our guest list earlier and I'm excited. What do you think about that today? Yeah, I think that's a good idea. I know we're trying to just lay a foundation right now for. listeners as we enter into season three. So I do challenge you all to think about context switching, think about task jumping and how it's actually is different than multitasking and think about how you apply it and maybe could fight it if you can because the whole purpose is so that we are more productive long term and we don't face as much of a mental fatigue. So think how you apply it and think how you can drive it down in your organizations as well. Absolutely. Well listeners this concludes another intriguing episode of organizational Sherlocks. I'm Elizabeth Fleming. And I'm Morgan Ashworth reminding you that the journey to success is an ongoing investigation. Stay curious, stay strategic and keep utilizing insights to decode your business mysteries. Join us every Friday for your next Who Done It. This is organizational Sherlocks closing today's case. We will see you all next time.