Cool Down (2 page)

So, ultimately, this is what I'm getting at: You can get further, faster, by incorporating
slow
into your life's strategy.

Here's how we're going to do it.

First, we'll look at some of the damage the current high-velocity, event-to-event mindset has caused, starting in Chapter 1, with an analysis of our innate fondness for, and attraction to speed. Chapter 2 observes the impact of speed on our communication and productivity within a team or work context, and Chapter 3 then looks at its costs on a personal basis. These chapters do not represent an exercise in technology-bashing. Instead they offer an opportunity to step back and observe just how human nature, technology, and globalization have combined to both bring about and then accept a massive speed-up of life, with some surprising consequences.

Next, in Chapter 4, we'll have a look at the
Slow
movement itself, to see where it came from, what its main principles are, how they compare to the ideologies of the North American work ethic, and how it has thus far been embraced by business and industry.

Then comes the big question: Should you embrace the
Slow
movement?

My answer to this is yes. I believe the adoption of
slow
principles is essential to ongoing employability for all working people. But it has to be done practically and pragmatically. First, we have to change its name, since “slow” is a difficult term for people to come to grips with. We are going to call it
cooling down
. Therefore, in all of the subsequent chapters I will demonstrate numerous ways in which
cooling down
will improve your potential and abilities, intellectually, emotionally, and creatively. In Chapter 5, for example, we look at the value of allowing your creative mind to roam more freely, unencumbered by the minutiae of the immediate, to see just what opportunities lie in that direction. My feeling is that you will be able to do more, for your future, your career and your overall happiness, by embracing the principles offered in this chapter.

Chapter 6 helps steer you towards such creative opportunities by offering advice on setting up a cooler workday—specific how-to's such as how to wake up and get up in a more productive, less stressed fashion, so that you will have time for good work, creativity,
and
exercise.

Chapter 7 offers techniques for creating a cooler, better you—how to exude charisma and confidence, how to recognize and use power in various types of situations, and how to maximize your presence in the way you talk, write, and act.

Chapter 8 looks at fear: the fear of implementing change and the fears people might have of introducing
slow
concepts into a workplace that doesn't understand them. This is important, since only by confronting fears can we work with them and through them.

Chapter 9 challenges you to apply
cool
concepts beyond the day-to-day, in order to make them part of your longer-term career strategy. This is an often-overlooked concept for busy people, for whom just getting through today can be a challenge.

Chapter 10 takes this even further by preparing you for sudden career change. Employment is not what it used to be, and sudden career change is a great likelihood for people at any level. Taking the time now to prepare for it can make all the difference between trauma and triumph.

Chapter 11 concludes the book with a look at family, which is always affected by the speed of work. Family refers not only to suburban households with kids and pets, but also to couples and singles—in essence the life outside of work that we all hope to retain and enjoy.

Cool Down
is a sibling to my first book, entitled
Cool Time
, a book that explained practical time management skills from the perspective of project management, physiology, and influence rather than in terms of A, B, and C tasks. By bridging the gap that separates theory from high-pressure reality, it made time management habits real and workable for many different personality types.
Cool Down
takes this same approach to the
Slow
movement, identifying why and how the human body and mind function throughout the busy workday, and why and how a conscious approach to stepping away from reactionism, pressure, and overload is not only essential but actually achievable.

A colleague of mine is the CEO of a media and design firm, and he has also been racing Porsches professionally since the age of 18. Nevertheless, he gives advice that seems contrary to the racer's image. He says, “If you want to win, you have to know how to slow down as much as how to speed up. How you enter and exit a corner will have enormous impact on your performance on the straightaway.” He continues, “You have to be thinking two cars ahead. Not what the guy in front of you is doing, but the guy in front of him. The same goes for anyone driving on any highway. And you can't do that if your mind is not together and cool.”

We're all driving Porsches, mentally at least, from the moment the alarm goes off in the morning until we get back into bed, 13, 16, maybe 20 hours later. But unlike professional racers, it seems a lot of us succumb to the pressure to drive in the fast lane all the time. Urged on by the persistent prodding of our wireless technologies, we feel a palpable need to extend our accessibility and responsibility well beyond reasonable limits. Many people today check their messages from their bedside the moment the clock radio announces the new morning, before their eyes have even properly focused. Many also check in as they retire to their beds at night. If they could swing it, I'm sure they would even arrange to have their email forwarded to their dreams.

A recent newspaper article highlighted the current insatiable demand for portable wireless devices, tools that, although useful, have catapulted expectation and obligation to new heights. It described a particular owner who admitted to being an addict. This person confessed to:

According to the article, he also admitted to using it in the bathroom and dropping it into the toilet—twice.

Twice?

Certainly, as the world becomes more and more connected, we all feel a renewed pressure to outperform, to differentiate ourselves from the competition, to do more and do it faster and usually with fewer resources than ever before. Like a giant poker game, the fear of not achieving these goals drives us forward, fueled by the constant, lurking threat that there is someone out there—a manager, a shareholder, a client, an auditor, or a competitor—who holds the final card, the ace of spades, the card of death—a person who can pull your job, your business, your identity, and your connection to the human race across the table and out of the game.

But the main point is this: No-one can hope to secure a place in either the present or the future by keeping his nose pressed tightly to the grindstone, working as hard and as fast as he can, 18 hours a day. Such behavior sits instead on the path of personal extinction.

All living species, including humans, have had to continually adapt to their changing environments. Major changes used to take thousands of years over many generations. Now substantial change happens in mere months, whether we're capable of handling it or not. I believe the next major evolutionary step for people who live and work in developed economies is to learn to manage some of the ancient instincts that have made speed so influential in their actions. We need to cool down and use
slow
as the next tool of strategic advantage. A cool mind and body provides fertile ground for creativity, providing the opportunity to deliver better solutions and circumstances, no matter what line of work we happen to be in. As newer, hungrier economies outpace us with cheaper, faster hard goods and cheaper, immediately accessible outsourced services, the act of cooling down will help us thrive, by making sure we are ready to listen actively, think clearly, work effectively, and exist proactively, keeping health and balance side-by-side with competitiveness and innovation. This is the recipe for our future. For as the pace of life continues to increase, and as jobs change and markets shift, will still be able to react—appropriately—by being mentally prepared. Quite simply, more can be done in the cool shade of clear thinking than under the hot sun of exertion and reactionism. Consequently, we will be perceived as genuinely valuable and able to fill a need for our clients (whomever they may be) that is based as much on trust as on the quality of our deliverables.

Each chapter contains sidebars with “How To” lists, To Dos or suggestions. These are immediately useable and easy to remember. Also each chapter concludes with two valuable sections: a summary of the key issues, entitled “Key Points to Take Away,” and a list of assessment questions. These assessment questions are designed to help you to observe your current habits and approaches with an eye to modifying them wherever appropriate.

If you answer each assessment question from each chapter, you will create a thorough summary of your current “self,” something between a self-guided 360 and a business plan. Please note, however, that assessments and action plans are effective only when the reader undertakes three commitments:

To help this become a reality for you, additional copies of the entire
How to Cool Down
collection with extra space for writing in your answers are available for download at the
Cool Down
section of our website:
www.bristall.com
. Just look for the Blue Tortoise.

 

Recently a radio commercial aired for a popular brand of wireless PDA. The first voice, the owner of the device, tells how he was able to get all of Monday's work done on the train ride in. He checked his email, reviewed his PowerPoint presentation, read some documents, all kinds of great stuff. “So what happens when you get to work?” asks a second voice. “I pretend it's Tuesday,” he replies, and the commercial ends.

The character in this ad is typical of many people that I have met in the business world: people who are dedicated, enthusiastic, and optimistic about their work and their career prospects. They work diligently, always alert and responsive to incoming requests for their attention and time. Their technologies allow them to compose documents, messages, and presentations much faster than just a few years ago, and the ease by which information is sent across time zones and between departments means that turnaround times are shorter, and everyone stays busy. Very busy. Yet, below the surface, these same people feel something else: a nagging sensation that speed and overload is getting the better of them. They sense a certain frustration. Their workload seems to grow all the time. There is an expectation that responses to emails and requests should be given immediately, and this occupies much of the working day. The true number of hours needed to get it all done extends into the evening and the weekend. Distraction seems to overtake focus. The stress and confusion that this causes tends to make these people feel they have to work more, just to keep up.

This is the world of speed. In principle, it makes sense. If you can do more, you advance. But the problem with speed is that is generates busy-ness as opposed to business. It brings into being a frenetic level of activity that blinds the observer as to actual progress and productivity. The constant need to “keep up” leads to a false sense of achievement, so that while we think we are swimming, we are actually just treading water.

This condition is not unique to the digital age. It has been part of organized work for many centuries, but it has truly taken a great leap forward in the last decades. It can be put into strong perspective by observing it in the light of three simple concepts, as follows:

Cecil Northcote Parkinson was an engineer who, in the 1950s, made a scientific study of staffing and labor in the British civil service, in which he described how the value of a department's output declined as the number of employees increased. He published his findings in a book called
Parkinson's Law: The Pursuit of Progress
. Today, Parkinson's Law is often stated as, “Work expands to fill the time available,” or in terms of computers and computing, “Data expands to fill the space available for storage.” In either case, the expression reflects a type of ergonomic inflation, in which scope increases, yet true productivity does not.

Were he still alive today, Cecil Parkinson would surely have enjoyed observing the way in which his law has flourished. Imagine, for example, how the rest of the day unfolds for the wireless PDA owner in the radio commercial described at the start of this chapter. He arrives at his desk having completed Monday's work on the train. His schedule, having been momentarily freed up, quickly refills with more tasks and more expectations. He now has just as much work to do as he would have if he had spent the train trip staring out the window. It's different work, but it's still just as much. So he can't really pretend it's Tuesday, because a second Monday has slipped in to fill the void. Is the new work that he takes on “high value work,” or just “work”? Is he taking twice as long to work on his next project simply because time has been freed up due to his diligence on the train? Most importantly, can he tell the difference between work and productivity?