Context switching leads us to Kramering!
“Kramering” describes people physically or metaphorically entering a conversation the same way that Kramer enters Jerry’s apartment.
In Seinfeld, Jerry’s neighbour, Kramer seems to have free access into Jerry’s apartment. He enters when and how he wants - on his terms (which also seems to be the way that Kramer lives his life in general). Most often, Kramer bursts into Jerry’s apartment with a theatric flourish!
Inevitably, he interrupts whatever conversation was in progress and any momentum that was building is lost.
A version of this is happening in organisations everywhere. As individuals are part of more and more teams, they are called into more meetings, have more deadlines and have more pressure placed on their schedules. Inevitably, they run from a meeting or conversation relating to one of their teams and straight into another conversation for a different team.
That’s what leads to what I call “Kramering”.
It describes people physically or metaphorically entering a conversation the same way that Kramer enters Jerry’s apartment. They burst in at speed, slightly (or significantly) late and disrupt the conversation that is in progress. In an online setting, it’s when we “Leave and Join” one meeting and into the next without any gap. Further, they often haven’t resolved the challenge from the previous conversation so their attention becomes split - meaning that neither team is getting the benefit of their full attention.
This challenge is real and complex to resolve. There are mechanical things that we can do to improve this (like adding buffer to meeting start/finish times) and there are also more complex dynamics that are at play. All of us play a part here. Individuals, teams and organisations need to by hyper-aware of their teams, their roles in those teams and how they can contribute to strengthening those teams.
These are the explicit conversations about Teamership that will drive performance.
Some questions for you to consider this week:
Do you ever notice yourself entering a conversation like Kramer?
How might you reduce the chances of Kramering - for yourself and others?