INTRODUCTION
THE SLOW MOVEMENT: WHO NEEDS IT?
Let’s get this straight, right from the beginning. This is a book about the
Slow movement, and whether it has any place in modern business. But this is not a book about how
nice it feels to slow down and drift through life. It’s a book about:
• Getting ahead
• Getting things done
• Staying employable
• Staying employed, and it’s about
• How to do the important things fast.
Fast is important. In an age of 24/7 business, of overloaded schedules, of wireless access and a ceaseless need to stay in the loop, there isn’t much tolerance among working people for a Huckleberry Finn approach to managing the day—lazy afternoons, long lunches, and taking time to observe the sun traverse the sky. We all may wish we could take this approach, but few of us have a realistic expectation of getting there any time soon. There’s just too much to do, and it all needs to get done now.
Everywhere you turn you hear people talking about their ever-increasing task load; that the workday has extended to 18 hours or more; that email and wireless PDA devices are addictive and that people are using them, or are feeling pressured into using them, well into the hours that used to be reserved for personal life. This, it seems, is the new norm.
In spite of this, there are others who profess the value of going more slowly. They say they’re part of a Slow movement. They represent a collection of organizations and individuals that together advocates working slower, speaking slower, eating slower, and basically living slower. Numerous companies, it seems, right here in North America, have actually incorporated slow into their infrastructure, changing work hours and office layouts to accommodate in-house daycare, workout rooms, communal meeting places, and privacy nooks. There are cities in Japan, Italy, and elsewhere that have made this Slow movement an official lifestyle, mandating traffic patterns, store-opening hours, and even business practices to fit with this philosophy. And, thanks to the Internet, these advocates have all joined together to become a new global-social presence.
So, is this for real? Is the slow approach tenable here in North America? Can it work for you, in your business, with your customers and your boss, in a way that will make things better? Sure, the Italian countryside certainly seems a good place to encourage the Slow movement. Workers have come and gone across its fields and streets for thousands of years. There’s probably a greater readiness there to accept a shifting of gears, since, after all, Old World Europeans have “been there and done that” in so many different ways that their collective sense of time, life, and related values is by now encrusted with pragmatic acceptance. But how realistic is it to expect the Slow movement to catch on in those areas of the world where a high-speed work ethic reigns? It goes against instinct—against the very forces that have propelled human beings to adapt and advance. The desire to further yourself, to protect yourself and your family from harm, and to identify opportunities to improve living conditions are strong basic urges, and although, ultimately, most people work really hard so that one day they no longer have to work so much, the idea of slowing down to get there just doesn’t make sense.
Julie Burchill of the
London Times put it this way: “There is something rather sad about those people always banging on about the joys of Slow Shopping, and of its kissing cousin Slow Food; it points to dull and dreary nostalgia-hounds with too much time on their hands and a morbid fear of modernity ...”
1So what’s the answer? Does going slow appeal to you? Does it seem practical, or does it look like a recipe for “second-best”? My belief is that slow is not only wise, it is essential. For as the pace of life speeds up, the skills that we need to attract and build business and to maintain a superior level of productivity are getting buried under a false momentum that plays on some very deep-seated fears inside the human mind.
Furthermore, there are laws of physics that demonstrate that working faster doesn’t get you there faster. But in large part, the digital age has forced us to work faster and live faster, and in so doing we have started to lose sight of the maxim “more haste, less speed.”
The goal of this book, then, is to identify ways in which the concepts put forth by the Slow movement can be applied to ensure to your survival and success as a competitive working professional. But for this to make sense, these concepts have to be realistic. When there are 200 emails sitting in your inbox, a wireless PDA chirping on your hip, and a boss or a customer who says, “Just get it done,” slowing down doesn’t spring to mind as Plan A.
It’s important to make the point here that not everything that is quick is bad. Responding quickly to a client’s call might win new business. Solving a client’s problem quickly might generate greater loyalty. Getting out of the way of a falling piano is a healthier option than just standing still. Quickness is vital to competitiveness and to survival. But quickness and quality cannot be fully achieved if everything else about your work and your mental state is hurried to the point of confusion or exhaustion. And that’s why I believe this book will be valuable to you. Cool Down seeks to model its success strategy after people and even creatures who know the value of going slow in order to go fast. The cheetah, for example, is the fastest animal on earth. The cheetah knows so much about being fast primarily because she also knows about going slow. She knows she cannot run 70 miles an hour all day and still expect to make a catch. She knows her own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of her quarry, and is thus better empowered to strike at the right time, in the right measure.
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.
PUTTING SPEED INTO PERSPECTIVE: WHY ARE WE RACING?
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:
• Answering emails with his right hand while cleaning his teeth with his left
• Reading email one line at a time while driving
• Scrolling through his inbox while on holiday
• Scanning his email every hour or two until 9 p.m., including weekends
• Falling asleep on the sofa clutching the device to his chest.
2 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.
MAKING USE OF THIS BOOK
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 write out the answers rather than just think about them
• To complete them honestly and fully
• To discuss the results with a mentor.
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.
2 Calloway, Simon. “BlackBerry users press away as date nears.” The Globe and Mail February 21, 2006.