Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

259. Quick Thinks: Task-Focused to People-Focused—A Smarter Way to Communicate

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Jan 29, 2026

Megan Reitz, leadership researcher at Oxford who studies speaking up and psychological safety. She contrasts narrow task-focused attention with spacious attention that fosters connection. The conversation covers why teams get stuck in doing mode, how to build agility between modes, and practical moves to name spaciousness, invite dissent, and keep people speaking up.

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INSIGHT

Two Modes Of Attention

Organizations operate in two attention modes: doing mode and spacious mode.
Doing narrows focus to tasks; spacious expands attention for insight, relationships, and emergence.

ADVICE

Name And Invite Spaciousness

Name and legitimize the spacious mode so teams can value it instead of ignoring it.
Build safety and invite people or roles that nudge the team to pause and widen attention.

ADVICE

Prioritize Psychological Safety

Prioritize psychological safety to allow teams to shift into spacious mode.
Reduce fear and anxiety so attention can widen and people can relate and innovate together.

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How “spaciousness” helps teams move beyond busywork — and build the conditions for honest conversation.

“We’re just so busy right now” is one of the most common reasons cultures don’t change — and it’s exactly what Megan Reitz set out to understand. In her research, she describes two modes of attention at work: doing mode, where focus narrows to tasks, control, and quick progress, and spacious mode, where attention expands, insight emerges, and real connection becomes possible.

Reitz is a leadership researcher whose work explores how people speak up, listen well, and create environments where others can be heard — because, as she puts it, “how you show up affects the voices of the people around you.” When teams are anxious or rushed, attention tightens and listening gets shallow; when there’s more safety and space, people can pause, widen their perspective, and make better choices together.

In this Quick Thinks episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Reitz and host Matt Abrahams discuss why organizations get stuck in doing mode and what it takes to build spacious agility. They share practical ways to name spaciousness, strengthen psychological safety, introduce healthy dissonance (even through assigned roles like devil’s advocate), and respond in ways that keep people speaking up — not shutting down.

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Chapters:

(00:00) - Introduction
(02:24) - Doing Mode vs. Spacious Mode
(02:27) - Building Agility Between Modes
(13:10) - Creating Psychological Safety
(19:28) - Conclusion

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