The Metiss Group's Blog

Chunking is a term psychologists use to describe a technique individuals utilize to group responses when performing a memory task. When we take pieces of information and group them into chunks, we are better able to remember the details.  Psychologists argue our short-term memory can handle anywhere from three to seven chunks.

What’s easier to remember: 2485222593 or 248-522-25-93? “Jobdefinitionisimportantforsuccess” or “Job definition is important for success?”  This is why we chunk numbers and words.

When defining job functions, leaders easily identify dozens of activities and functions required in the job.  This extensive list usually becomes the basis for job descriptions.  Unfortunately, employees can rarely recall all the job activities for which they are responsible, and end up not accomplishing everything.

The best way to structure job activities is to group them into three to five larger chunks called accountability buckets.  The leader and direct report can then think of the job in these easy to remember chunks, thereby improving their performance.

When defining direct reports’ job functions, empowered leaders chunk the activities and experience more success.

This entry was posted on November 12, 2017 at 11:50 pm and is filed under Leadership, Performance Acceleration. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.