The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Can this common sense [backed by brain science] withstand the urgencies of your day?

Focus & concentration bring excellence.

When we have mastered performance excellence we can get in the zone.

Either way, focus/concentrate or in the zone, we are not multi-tasking when we are performing with excellence.

From Wikipedia...

Suspension of disbelief or willing suspension of disbelief is a term coined in 1817 by the poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who suggested that if a writer could infuse a "human interest and a semblance of truth" into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgement concerning the implausibility of the narrative.

Suspension of disbelief often applies to fictional works of the action, comedy, fantasy, and horror genres. Cognitive estrangement in fiction involves using a person's ignorance or lack of knowledge to promote suspension of disbelief.

The phrase "suspension of disbelief" came to be used more loosely in the later 20th century, often used to imply that the burden was on the reader, rather than the writer, to achieve it. This might be used to refer to the willingness of the audience to overlook the limitations of a medium, so that these do not interfere with the acceptance of those premises. These fictional premises may also lend to the engagement of the mind and perhaps proposition of thoughts, ideas, art and theories. [1] Suspension of disbelief is often an essential element for a magic act or a circus sideshow act. For example, an audience is not expected to actually believe that a woman is cut in half or transforms into a gorilla [2] in order to enjoy the performance.

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Now, Suspension of Disbelief is not limited to fiction entertainment.

Suspension of Disbelief happens day after day in business...entrepreneurs do it repeatedly.

Entrepreneurs create and believe fantastic stories around their visions and goals. 

And from time to time, other people suspend their doubts and embrace entrepreneurs' fantastic visions and goals.

Then things really happen and every once in a while truth becomes more fantastic than fiction.

When people don't do what you expect consider the possibility this is due to one or more of the following complications:

1. They understood what you asked but they didn't know how to do what you asked 
2. They understood what you asked but they forgot to do it 
3. They understood what you asked but they chose not to do it 
4. They didn't understand what you asked 

These 4 possibilities represent significantly different situations. 

To help your people do better in the future, use very different approaches for these 4 situations.

If you do not adapt to fit the situation then you are more likely to hinder rather than help your people improve their performance. Coupled with this, if you do not adapt to fit the situations, you will expand confusion...their confusion and yours.

In fact, you will need to address nuances within these 4 possibilities. You will need to take different tactical approaches. You need to consider the situation thoroughly. To do this, you will need to ask questions to determine what is causing your people to under-perform.

Design questions to hone in on the specific cause of the under-performance. For example, regardless of the situation, investigate to determine if the problem signals:

1. a delegation-communication error,
2. a lack of required knowledge, or
3. a lack of talent or skill.