Overwhelmed by information at work? This role-play approach might help
By: Richard Penny
Tags: Overwhelmed At Work, Stress Management, Control, Roleplay

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

2020 is a year of change and undoubtedly the covid-19 aftershocks will bring further change. The nature of these coming changes is currently a matter of speculation for many people. In such periods of uncertainty, I consider the best option is to mentally prepare ourselves to deal with change. Any adequate mental preparation for change means examining our own assumptions. Yet we may be unaware of particular habits of our own, and so we overlook their liabilities.

When colleagues and friends began working from home as covid-19 restrictions took hold, I noticed many of them struggled. People remarked on feeling distant or overwhelmed from the flow of information emanating from modern work environments. I recognized two key factors for their sense of information overload.

Firstly, many of these friends and colleagues identified with their work on a personal level. They felt stimulated by the human interactions that arose during their daily work, and the remote working environment had deprived them. A sense of imbalance and indistinct doubt arose in the place of personal interactions, and this impacted their motivation and productivity. The second observation is that people retained old habits to do their work. These habits were formed a long time ago in completely different circumstances, and were being applied inappropriately for current events. Stress was inevitable.

Yet this new working environment is actually a perfect opportunity for people to refresh and reinvent their approach. Why so? Old routines have been knocked out of place and a new way of working compels people to look at their work from a different perspective, whether they like it or not. After someone has taken onboard a new perspective, they may remain consciously aware of multiple perspectives to view a familiar part of their work. Recognition of multiple perspectives leads to realizing you have a choice in how you look at something. If we have that choice, we have an opportunity to find what’s the best way for us to perceive something and improve.

This insight inspired me to develop and share among my colleagues and friends an effective approach for their information overload. The approach uses role-plays to sidestep the two aforementioned factors, personal attachment and old habits, that had a detrimental effect on handling information. The response of my audience has been enthusiastic, yet I am aware that many other people are likely experiencing similar struggles. In light of this, I am sharing this content with a broader audience with the hope of helping people along the journey of overcoming their challenges.

My role-play approach consists of three phases: filtering, arranging, and handling. Building a to-do list, categorizing the contents, and then tackling them in a particular sequence.

Our first phase begins by imagining yourself in the role of a traffic conductor. You’re standing at a road and bundles are coming along this road towards you. These bundles are packaged information from numerous sources, such as work emails or phone calls. Nearby is a holding area. You are carrying a traffic light system comprising a red light, an amber light, and a green light.

As each bundle approaches, you prepare to make a quick observation of the bundle with the purpose of satisfying two questions: “Is this information bundle in the shape of a task?” and “if so, is this task relevant to me?”. If the bundle cannot be identified as a task, or the task is entirely irrelevant for this stretch of road, you hold up the red light. The bundle does not proceed further, though it may be parked at the side of the road or redirected to a relevant destination elsewhere. When an oncoming bundle is recognized as a task and the thought then flashes in your mind “hmm, that’s something I’ll have to deal with”, it is a relevant task. In this case, you hold up the green light and usher the bundle into a nearby holding area. This holding area will be discussed in the next phase. Sometimes you spot an approaching bundle and you are not sure at the moment when you examine it whether it is a red light event or a green light event. When you cannot quickly determine answers to the two prepared questions, you put the bundle in a stationary state by holding up the amber light. While a bundle is waiting at the amber light, you radio someone who might be able to provide more clarity or you do some research yourself to determine ultimately whether this bundle should be shown a red light or a green light.

The effectiveness of this traffic conductor system lies in its simple and unambiguous structure. Many people struggle when they’re filtering information, particularly if a piece of information is ambiguous. In the absence of a filter framework, potential doubts that occur are more likely to trigger emotional reactions and egoic decisions. Once you, as traffic conductor, have examined and filtered oncoming bundles at the present time, you move on to the arranging role of the second phase.

In the second phase, imagine yourself in the role of a planner. You are next to the holding area used by the traffic conductor. Your role responsibilities are to categorize and prioritize.

You begin to categorize by examining a task with a question “what skills would be needed to complete this task successfully?”. You can then identify what skills an examined task requires and transfer the task to a separate marked area, which we refer to as a group. You create these groups on the basis of the particular skill you have identified. For example, if you identify a task foremost requires skills of evaluation, you would then transfer that task to an “evaluation skills” group. Any further tasks earmarked as needing evaluation skills are similarly directed to this “evaluation skills” group. You examine another task and consider it requires a different skill e.g. coordinating skill. So you create an appropriate group to hold that task and all future tasks linked with a similar needed skill. You do this process of categorization for every task in the holding area: examining and then directing it into an appropriate group designated for a particular skill set.

Once all tasks are categorized, you begin the planner responsibility of prioritizing i.e. you consider the “what should be handled” in terms of “when should it be handled”. You first identify the urgency level of each task in a group. After this, you draw up a priority rank of tasks within their group. You then repeat this process within every group. At this point, you notice some groups have more urgency contained within them than other groups. Based on these urgency levels, you create a priority rank of the groups. So now as a planner you have i) a priority ranking of the groups, and you also have ii) a priority ranking of tasks within each group. It’s time to move on to the third and final phase, which is focused on handling.

The third phase begins at the same location. We focus our imagination to each group, in turn, to consider “what would be an appropriate role for handling the tasks in this group”. For the evaluating group, you could imagine a judge or examiner as an apt choice to work through the contained tasks. Perhaps a coordinating group requires a scoutmaster. You imagine suitable and appealing roles for every group. Once you’ve allocated a role to each group, you take on the role for the highest priority group. Then as best as you conveniently can, you attempt to complete the prioritized tasks in that group until all are done. When the role has served its purpose, you switch to the role for the next priority group and deal with the contained tasks, and so on until all roles are completed i.e. all tasks are finished.

Our three-phase approach to handling a flow of information has two key advantages over a first-come-first-served or other less structured approaches. The first advantage is that by adhering to a specialized role (traffic conductor, planner, handlers] with a focused skill scope, you can greatly reduce the amount of shifting of gears in your head. You’ll free up a lot of energy and have a greater sense of control. Our second advantage is the formation of a safety barrier between yourself and the frustrating aspects of the tasks when you consciously take on role play. The existence of this safety barrier removes your emotions from the front line, meaning you keep a more rational head with less opportunity for muddle. This head will make better decisions than one that intimately bonds your work activities to the inevitable rollercoaster of a personal perspective.

If this approach of role plays for filtering, arranging and handling tasks is useful, intriguing or sounds fun for you, look out for my upcoming article on more control over your workplace challenges.