The Tetris Effect
Virtual Jury Duty is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever experienced. This morning I promptly joined the Zoom call at 8:35. As per the instructions, I had my camera on and tested my audio and video prior to the call to make sure I was ready. A few minutes in, someone from the Jury Staff introduced themselves and let all of us know that they were going to take attendance. A man then proceeded to start calling out everyone's names. There were over 300 people on the call….
It has been 3 hours and we just got through attendance. They have also already told people to mute themselves countless times, most people don't have their camera on, many are on their phones, and a few are clearly driving and not at their home "ready to appear in court" like they are supposed to.
As a former virtual software trainer, I want so desperately to help the Juror Office make this process more efficient. I want to teach them that Zoom has a "mute all" button, so they don't need to keep asking everyone to mute themselves. I want to show them that they can search in the participants list instead of scrolling through to find someone's name. I want to change so many things about this experience, but I know that if I keep looking for more flaws, I will find them because that's what our minds are trained to do.
If we focus in on one thing, like everything bad happening around us, then we are going to be more likely to see just those bad things and miss out on the good. This is known as "inattentional blindness" and it is highlighted in the infamous gorilla experiment. Psychologists asked more than 200 people to count the number of times a basketball team passed the ball, 46% of them were so focused on the counting that they missed the full-sized Gorilla walk across the court. Shaun Achor who describes this phenomenon in his book, The Happiness Advantage, explains that the participants were so surprised that they missed something so obvious, they demanded to see the footage again. He goes on to show that not only will we miss out on things we are not focused on, but the things we choose to focus on will impact what we see next; this is known as The Tetris Effect.
When you choose to recognize something good, you are priming yourself to see something else good. Just like the students who played Tetris and then couldn't stop seeing Tetris blocks everywhere, when we point out positive things, we will start seeing more positive things. So, while this experience is painful, I will not let it ruin my day and shift my attitude. Instead, I choose to laugh. I choose to count the good things and be grateful that I am sitting at home instead of having to drive into Elizabeth. I will recognize that I'm lucky to be here with my coffee and my breakfast, in the comfort of my home. When lunch rolls around, I will be grateful that I won't have to take my pathetic $5 allowance to McDonald's, but instead will be able to eat whatever I want.
There are always things that can be better and I'm not saying we shouldn't try to fix what might be broken. However, it’s good to recognize that the trend you start on can either negatively or positively impact your day, so choose wisely what to focus on. I choose to be positive today. Although it’s important to note that after this experience I will likely also choose to send an email offering some suggestions for improvement.
