Human beings are the only species that thinks, reflects, questions, wonders, daydreams, imagines, and allows for curiosity. We can reflect on the past and ponder the future. Yet, in an age of 15-second sound bites, 24-hour in-your-face news, and the constant bombardment by electronic devices, many folks are spending less and less time actually thinking.
This raises some interesting questions, not the least of which are: “Why do we seem to be doing less and less thinking? and “What are we allowing to get in the way of thinking?”
With so many people living their lives at a constant 90 miles an hour, we have less and less time to think, really think, as opposed to reacting. That’s maybe why we find ourselves always doing, doing, doing, without thinking about what we do.
Making time to think again
In your workplace, how often do you take time to think? How often are you encouraged to stop and reflect? How often do you encourage your direct reports to be curious about something and take the time required to pursue their wonderment?
Sadly, our over-emphasis (really, an obsession in our Western culture) on efficiency and productivity has not resulted in wiser choices, better solutions, or greater insights. It certainly hasn’t led to improved relationships and deeper and greater passion and engagement in our work. What is has produced instead is simply doing whatever we do in less time. — drone-like. We’re in danger of becoming simply faster robots.
Why does it matter?
What are we sacrificing to gain speed and efficiency by avoiding thinking and reacting instead throughout most of each workday? All species react. What of our humanness are we jettisoning in this “live reactively” approach to life at work?
Of course, to answer a question like this you have to think, which is maybe why it’s rarely even considered.
What if you did spend more time thinking at work? Would that even be a plus in your workplace? You may work in a not-invented-here type of work culture where thinking creatively, reflecting and imagining upset the apple cart, threatening the “business as usual” culture, and challenging the status-quo. If that’s the case, others might view you as dangerous. Being known as a thinker could be dangerous to your workplace health, which is why some people stop doing it.
What will it take to put things right?
For many folks, “act, don’t think” has become the ubiquitous workplace mantra. In a world of macho management, ideas and action don’t mix, like oil and water. Do we take enough time out to delve below the surface, explore, and allow our curiosity to discover something new and unexpected? Do we dare to take the risk of thinking at work?
As Bob Dylan wrote, in It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding): “He not busy being born Is busy dying.”
Thinking equates to being born, being alive, growing, and self actualizing. Simply “doing” equates to withering on the vine.
Now that’s something to think about!
This week’s food for thought questions
- How often do you really, really think, about your relationships with colleagues at work (let alone your spouse, your children and others)? Are these relationships improving, worsening, matter-of-fact, evaporating?
- Do you allow enough time for curiosity? Do you take the time to “drill down” to engage in discovery and exploration; or do you simply live your life on the surface of things?
- Have you spent any time reflecting on what upsets, frustrates, or angers you? Have you thought deeply enough about what’s underneath any habitual reactivity (doing without thinking)?
- Are you encouraged to think at work? Do you spend a majority of your working hours attached to an “electronic leash” — plugged into everything, everywhere, but your deeper self and creative potential?
- Do you foster a thinking climate and culture in your team or department? If not, why not?
- Do you take time out for yourself — to walk, be still, reflect, muse, wonder, and breathe deeply into your experiences? If not, why not?
- What one baby step could you take next week to allow for more thinking and reflective time?
- What do you think about thinking? Do you have (can you make) the time to even think about that?
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