Lately, I´ve been fascinated by our collective addiction to speed.
We seem to relish in this notion that the world is operating at the speed of light and that if we don´t keep up, we soon will be obliterated.
How much of this fervor is self-generated? Do we lead ourselves into exhaustion and burn-out because that really is the only choice, or is there something else going on?
Two events this week prompted this reflection. The first was a conversation I had with a dear friend of mine. She opted a few years back to walk away from a successful executive position and pursue her own entrepreneurial endeavors. Not one, but two business launches later, she is in the throes of keeping all the balls in the air. Part of her loves it. She loves the adrenaline rush she gets by having to work hard and late and put together something in which she is really proud. This time, she´s working hard for herself and in support of her own ideas, so that makes the time and energy investment much more satisfying. And yet, it´s hard to know when enough is enough and she seems spent a lot of the time.
The second conversation was one with a colleague in which she described the timelines on a project she was about to assign to someone. They sounded next to impossible to meet. When I asked why we were setting this person up to be rushed, the response left me feeling unsatisfied.
In my own work travels, I seem to frequently encounter two types of unproductive scenarios driven by speed. The first concerns work activities whose value is questionable, and yet, no time is made to explore whether they support strategy or whether they should be discontinued, and that time and attention be directed to more value-add activities. The attitude is often, "the busier, the better," regardless of whether the busyness is going anywhere. The second scenario is similar to the unreasonable timeline example I gave above. We force projects through unrealistic timelines, often without input by those individuals involved in their execution. They are left feeling harried and frustrated. And all for the sake of what? With enough time for reflection and planning, these situations can often be avoided.
Tony Schwartz, in the book he co-authored called The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal talks about the need for regular recovery if we hope to sustain performance long-term. I´ve yet to meet an organization that actively encourages recovery after a big launch or project completion. I interviewed Tony awhile back in our Thought Leader series. If you´re interested in the written summary of that article, click here. To access the webcast archive of that interview, click here.
I wonder if we´re going to see the pendulum swing the other way in years to come. Perhaps they´ll be a "slow-work" movement similar to the "slow food" movement that is gaining momentum throughout the world. See www.slowfood.com for more information.
In any case, I´m taking a moment out of my day, just to ponder. It feels good. Care to join me?
