Help colleagues understand you are in the zone.

Daniele Catalanotto
Apr 5, 2022
A Service Design principle for better productivity and safety at work

Imagine you are a nurse. You prepare medication for a patient. A colleague comes and asks you a question. You answer. And now you think:

“What was I doing again? Did I already give this medication?”

Or imagine you are a pilot. You are preparing the plane for take-off and doing all the various checks. That’s when a flight attendant comes and asks you a question. You answer. Now you might think:

“Shit! Where was I on my checklist? Did I already check the fuel level?”

Distractions can be dramatic in certain professions. And for many others, it’s a big pain in the ass, and it generates a big loss of productivity.

Hospitals and governments have found ways to avoid this problem: it’s the “sterile cockpit rule”.

I first read about it in the book “Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life” by Nir Eyal. It basically says:

When you do a critical task, we forbid any interruption from someone else.

What’s important is to help others know you are doing a critical task.

Some hospitals have a special spot on the floor where you can go, and no one should disturb you there. Or they let nurses wear colourful jackets to signal they are preparing medications. In many offices wearing headphones means you are in the zone. 

So what would be a sign that fits your organization's culture to let others know this is a focus time?


Little side notes

  • This is the second draft of this Service Design Principle.
  • I was able to reduce the lengths by 24.85% compared to the first version.
  • Once adapted, even more, this principle will be part of the book "Service Design Principles 201-300"
  • As always feel free to share comments, feedback or personal stories to improve this principle.
Like
Patrick Marcelissen
May 4, 2022
Clear to read the message of this principle. Like this one a lot. This is about focus time.

My suggestion is to end the principle with the question “ so what would be a sign … “ with space between the question and the other text at the end. And written cursief
Daniele Catalanotto
May 4, 2022
Thanks Patrick,
really appreciate the feedback :) I've already made the change :) 
Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 30, 2022

The third draft of this Service Design Principle

A pilot is preparing the plane for take-off and doing all the various checks. That’s when a flight attendant comes and asks him a question. He answers. Now he might think:

“Shit! Did I already check the fuel level?”

Distractions can be deadly in certain professions. And for many others, it’s a big pain in the ass.

Hospitals and governments have found ways to avoid this problem: it’s the “sterile cockpit rule” (1).

When you do a critical task, we forbid any interruption from someone else.

To make it work, we need to help others know we are doing a critical task.

For example, some hospitals have a marked spot where you can go, and no one should disturb you there. Or nurses wear colourful jackets to signal they are preparing medications (2). In many offices wearing headphones means you are in the zone.

So let me ask you.

What would be a sign that fits your organisation to let others know this is a focus time?

Footnotes

(1) (2022). Sterile flight deck rule. Wikipedia. Available at https://extra.swissinnovation.academy/aBCp accessed 19 October 2022.

(2) These examples come from Nir Eyal and Julie Li (2019). Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. BenBella Books. Available at https://extra.swissinnovation.academy/E7BG accessed 19 October 2022.

Daniele’s notes

  • This is the third draft of this principle.
  • I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 30 % compared to the previous draft