Let's learn to slow down

Here is my observation in a few sentences:

• We are in a society, in a dynamism, a competition and therefore a battle against time in order to demand results always in a reduced time constraint where we often set milestones before knowing precisely what the we want.
• We often want to have continuous improvement in order to improve productivity and deliver / provide answers to requesters more quickly with also a gain in quality.

Let us ask ourselves the right questions and the right behaviors in order not to bring about a battle of principles or society, but rather of an orientation, of a vision on what we want: of the how, of the what, why.

Indeed, my observation easily leads to consider milestones to be done as soon as possible, often the term ASAP is used for "As Soon As Possible". Then comes an active and reactive approach to focus on the time remaining to take the actions, in a short vision on the milestone (s) has passed. Everything is about the immediate and the effectiveness (if we can speak of effectiveness then) of the elements produced over time.

In this approach, we bring on the opposite of productivity, efficiency, what we actually want to accomplish.

First of all let's think about demand, our need and the definition of things.

Indeed, at one point, there was a need, a request. But what is this request motivated by?

Asking this first question allows you to better understand, to challenge and have a vision of the context.

By knowing the request better, it is possible to orient, reorient, focus on the other, and also to think about what to do for this request and to anticipate more broadly the context of the request. Is the request specific or may need to be requested again?

Then comes the analysis of the answer: knowing what to do, can we answer and especially what should be taken into account and want to answer us according to our context: deadline, competence, investment, and especially to respect is this compatible with our principles societal, corporate, human.

Then comes the production.

If we stayed within the schedule, we would undoubtedly result in a short-term vision of immediate response to demand. Even if the deadlines would be met. How do you know if there has been a profit? What did we get from it?

Although my terms like "profit" and "obtained" may sound like finance-oriented, now it's time to think broadly.

Then comes what we really want to define

Profit, progress, improvement, productivity, gain. All of these terms are often taken as a component to make it faster, more quantity, less expensive.

I understand these issues, but shouldn't we also measure personal satisfaction, well-being, learning new techniques that save human and environmental efforts, avoid toxicity, and waste.

Indeed, an effort or action thought out immediately leads, on the one hand to not seeing how to do otherwise and therefore to repeat or cover only the initially expressed need, and on the other hand to omit the answer from its source. In addition, at the human level, stress and repetition lead to discomfort that is as harmful for the person as it is for society.

How to act better?

Let us take the time to fully understand what we want overall for society, for the demands, for our business, our people, our environment.

Let us slow down to better understand, better choose, better respond, better reconcile, better respect, better measure what will improve our real productivity, our humanity, our environment, our well-being, our actions, our life.

Source of picture : www.freepik.com