Cool Down (13 page)

Since this book is about the nuts-and-bolts of how
Slow
might work within the context of business, I found the greatest significance of the Alcan story to be the commitment made by senior management, not merely to endorse the program, but also to act as role models. They have insisted their staff practice “no-work” weekends and out-of-office lunch breaks, and they then balance this out by urging employees to focus on “essential” rather than “important” tasks, to avoid working late.

On a recent visit to the Canadian head office of global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca Inc., I was pleased to observe the extent to which workplace health had been so thoroughly incorporated into their community. Employees informed me that, yes, they were actually encouraged to use the extensive health and exercise facilities and that this was allowed even during the workday.

As Anna Blake, AstraZeneca's Manager of Employee Wellness, told me, “It's important to have an HR policy supporting Work-Life Balance. Employees have their core hours between 10 and three. Some start early or leave late, and they can also juggle around their lunch.”

One of the unique and fascinating things about AstraZeneca's approach is the instructor-led exercise sessions. The instructors are volunteers—AstraZeneca employees—who have been trained to deliver the exercise classes. Anna pointed out, “There's a lot of companies who, when they talk about wellness they talk about having a committee. We think it's more important to get them actively involved in it.” The “them” in this case referred not only to the main-line employees but the vice-presidents too, many of whom play on the company's hockey team.

AstraZeneca's multi-dimensional commitment to wellness covers more than just exercise; it also deals with social and psychological issues. In addition to the exercise facilities, they also offer cooking and watercolor classes. They even have their own art gallery to display their employees' creativity.

Companies and their senior executives are recognizing the difference between working full-out, and working smart. In a sense they are catching up to their computers. It has always intrigued me that for many of the companies I visit the most comfortable room in the workplace is the server room. It is usually air conditioned, clean, and always well looked after. It makes sense, after all, because that's where the computers live, and without them, the company could not run. Some organizations are now recognizing that the same standards can promote optimal human functioning. They have seen that although wireless technology allows employees to work from anywhere and at any time, this has not resulted in proportionate increases in productivity. Busy-ness does not equal business.

Carlos Ghosn, CEO of both Renault (France) and Nissan (Japan), was interviewed by
Fortune
magazine for the article
How I Work
. He describes the superhuman effort it takes to keep up with his workload, given that he has to travel to opposite sides of the world regularly each month. Yet with all that he has to do, he still points out the value of cooling down:

What a marvelous demonstration of the power of cooling down. Even with the pressure of running two companies half a world apart, Mr. Ghosn applies conscious control to maintain equilibrium between his work and his recuperation/family time. He demonstrates that far from being a passive act, cooling down is about actively creating perfect balance.

Esperanto is a language that was designed to be the
lingua franca
of the world. Developed in 1880 or thereabouts by a Polish ophthalmologist, Dr. Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof, it still exists, with an estimated 10,000 to 100,000 people using it regularly, mostly in Central Europe and parts of post-colonial Africa. It's not exactly heard regularly in coffee shops on Main Street in North America, but it's well known enough that you can order an Esperanto add-on for Microsoft Word.

The reason why Esperanto never really took off has more to do with one of its own greatest accomplishments: It is borderless and cultureless. It has no official status in any country, and it has no true roots within any group or society. It was invented out of a theoretical concept, and then introduced to a diverse group of peoples. When an organic thing such as a language has no roots, it stands little chance of growing. When it also lacks the opportunity to be nurtured, it has little chance of surviving. Esperanto still exists, in pockets here and there, but it will never be able to outpace the growth and continued natural evolution of languages that live and breathe. It is said, for example, that 50 years from now, the English language as it is spoken today will be very different, as words, terms, and tonality from other dominant languages become part of it. However, the roots of English will still be evident, just as the Germanic, Latin, Norse, French, and Sanskrit roots of today's English are still visible beneath the surface, and the language will continue to be used. It has a purpose and it has practicality.

This is how I see the problem facing the
Slow
movement. Business people in North America see
slow
as a kind of Esperanto term. Useful for someone else, and perhaps even useful here, but it is not in keeping with the culture of speed and progress. People find it hard to acknowledge the damage that high speed and long hours are doing to them. Some may be looking for an escape, but others believe the current pace is necessary for survival. So our challenge is to make the idea of slowing down sell itself, through practical tips and a demonstration of its payoff. Only then can the roots begin to take hold.

The first step, I believe is to refrain from calling this approach
slow
, and instead use the term
cool
. The word
cool
is one of the most popular terms in the Western world, and one that spans cultures and generations effortlessly. It evokes more positive feelings than does
slow
, and connotes a greater sense of control and achievement. The question now, is, should you embrace the S
low
movement through cooling down? The following chapters aim to demonstrate practical ways in which doing so can improve and maybe even save your life.

 

 

To “blue-sky” means to stare out at the sky. Whether it is clear blue and featureless, whether there are clouds slowly passing by, or even if it is gray and overcast or black and starry, the sky offers a unique canvas upon which to rest your gaze. There is no need to focus hard, there are no distracting details, yet it's a visual scene of enormous potential.

The act of blue-skying is a powerful, creative intellectual undertaking. It allows the mind to work on problems, ideas, and opportunities that the busy-ness of the day-to-day tends to obscure. Blue-skying is one of the major benefits of
slow
, and therefore represents one of the major watersheds in any individual's destiny, since it is the act of blue-skying that allows people to do what needs to be done most: to continue to innovate and excel in a way that fosters ongoing growth and success. Some people have the time for this; most don't.

There is enormous value in taking your eyes away from work and focusing them on the sky, in the name of productivity, not of work avoidance. Leisure by itself is nice, and valuable, but the theme of this book is about using
slow
to get further ahead, which means, finding ways to advance, by taking time away from the momentum of “now,” and applying it to the deeper possibilities of the future.

In Chapter 2, I described numerous examples and scenarios in which people feel the need to stay in the loop for fear of being left out. In Chapter 3, I introduced the term
ambient momentum
to highlight the atmosphere of speed that perpetuates the workplace and contributes to the fogging of creative, strategic thought. Blue-skying is the antithesis to both of these afflictions.

Take elevators, for example. A person who travels in an elevator “solo,” that is to say not engaged in conversation with anyone else in the car, faces a full 45 seconds or so of idleness between the time he presses his floor button and the time of his arrival. He enters a void of inactivity: 45 seconds with no external stimulation. This is anathema to the speed-minded person. So he reaches quickly for his wireless PDA. What if he doesn't have one yet? No worry. He can instead check to see if his cell phone has reception. Failing that, he can read the elevator's own in-car television monitor to get the latest headlines, stock prices, and ads. Anything to fill that void. What this elevator passenger is doing is filling up on high-satisfaction, low-value intellectual stimuli. He's filling his mind up with the activity of busy-ness brought on by the ambient momentum of his high-speed life. Such activities satisfy a need, but do little for overall productivity.

A 45-second elevator ride is a perfect place to do what people used to do before wireless PDAs, cell phones, or elevator TV ever existed: stare at their shoes and think about something. Think about what? Well, whatever comes to mind. In Chapter 2, I mentioned the seven-second rule, which is useful during meetings to find out if anyone has a question or a comment. Seven seconds is a long time to wait, but that's how long it takes for people to process, question, and then summon the courage and energy to verbalize. It takes time for individual thoughts and ideas to realize that they might have a chance to step forward from the recesses of the brain and express themselves. Thoughts that might save time, create new opportunities, or generally do good things—they're all in there. But every time they try to make themselves known, they're brushed aside by another fast-moving “immediacy.” These ideas find little opportunity to make themselves known in our busy world, and collectively we run the risk of losing them forever.