Recently consultants I know and respect have been posting on the value of AI as a productivity tool. I think if they add this to the mix they will genuinely become superhuman in their ability to get things done. And I truly admire them in this and their desire to share this with others. And yet...
As I walk the Camino, I ponder our increasing focus on getting things done as quickly and efficiently as possible. And I wonder where this will take us?
Even on this contemplative walk I see people getting up early to get to the next Albergue, talking proudly of their 30-40km days, the deadlines they need to meet and how quickly they will get the walk done – as though the goal is to get there as fast as they can. I feel and struggle with my own desire to rush to get to some endpoint and how ingrained this is in my own work and life. Efficiency becomes the game as we are driven to achieve the next goal and the next in some parody of sysiphus. And I wonder at the cost of this.
Recently when I 'built' a studio (read...directed the builders mostly), I came across a renovation in our local Botanical Gardens. Jarrah decking that would otherwise go to the bin. They gladly gave it to me and I manovered amongst piles of nail laden timber like some vast game of pickup sticks. Once home I looked with dismay at the work required to transform this grungy pile of used decking. Sorting, denailing, sanding, staining. Piece after piece lugged back and forth to the shed for the next step of the work. Days of it. Not efficiency but rather a dogged patience. Then, learning to lay decking whilst tired and cold in the evenings, before the builders returned next day. It was a labour and not of love; building, sanding, staining, sweating in a dust mask with noisy tools; not my idea of a good time. And yet...when that deck which I came to know so intimately was complete, my level of satisfaction exceeded all bounds. It remains one of my favourite parts of the studio. Efficency would have had the builders do it- but my inefficient pathway led instead to deep meaning and satisfaction.
I laughed ruefully at a story a fellow pilgrim shared early in the journey. When he asked to take off the not-insignificant time to walk the Camino, his boss responded 'Yes sure. But why would you want to walk it when you can drive it in two days?!' (Only a little deflating to hear this). And of course we could. That would be efficient. But the miracles of the Camino come from the walking and the close relationship with the countryside, even if at times, it is a dogged step by dogged step.
And I wonder; in a world where we are often required to rush, to be endlessly efficient, to get the next thing done; just how much that costs us. And how much we miss in the process. I suspect that one of those costs is a loss of deep satisfaction and meaning in the work that we do. And I think we have a world that is desperately hungry for that.
We’d love to hear your reflections. Share your thoughts in the comments or forward this to someone who might need a reminder to slow down.
– Helen Rees is the Director of Frameworks for Change – a company dedicated to transforming workplace culture.