What Lulls Us into Not Paying Attention

There has been another incident of a power bank catching fire on a flight. It was in the overhead bin - exactly where we are told not to keep it.

Every safety announcement says the same thing: keep the power bank in your handbag, within reach. And yet, most passengers are scrolling through their phones when it is being said.

I have watched this for years. The safety demonstration happens. Almost no one watches.

I have also wondered what this does to the flight crew. Demonstrating something important to a cabin full of people who have already decided they don’t need to know. It must make the work feel like a routine to be ticked off rather than a responsibility that matters.

What lulls us into feeling we already know, or that we don’t need to know?

Familiarity. Routine. The belief that knowledge acquired once doesn’t need refreshing.

For a leader, this shows up. In how they listen to a conversation they think they’ve already understood. In situations they assume are familiar. In the moment someone is describing a problem and the leader has already moved on internally, to the solution, the context, the conclusion, before the person has finished.

The person speaking feels this, almost always, even when nothing is said.

What gets lost in that moment is not just information. It is the signal that this person and what they are saying are not worth attention.