Photo by Markus Spiske
When the road works signs went up along the local road I drive every day, I think everyone noticed them. They were brightly coloured and eye-catching. Everyone slowed down, some even got right down to the new 30km/hr limit.
A fortnight later, the media were reporting that traffic was speeding by, and the local police had ticketed lots of drivers. A day after this media coverage I noticed that the cars were again crawling along close to the posted speed limit. But that was last week, and this morning, I see that the speed is edging up again . . .
Our attention to what matters can fade very quickly.
Advertisers are all over this concept. Go to a big sports event and you’ll see rolling signs – they change all the time. TV ad agencies try to beat the fade by splitting the ad up into parts of a story – if it’s a good story we pay attention again when the next episode comes out. When you go to a website many of them sense the fade coming and try a last ditch attempt to keep you by throwing up an offer that locks your screen until you find that tiny wee cross.
In our schools we have many things that are important, and we too have an audience – students, parents and colleagues. Our audience is just as fickle in their attention span as those speeding drivers.
Some sort of rotation of focus is needed because fresh is exactly that, and anything else is either a habit or is not happening at all.
So, what’s your refresh plan for your key goals this year?
Dave