Man's natural condition

When looking around me, it seems to me that people are not taking time to reflect. They are in their cars, going at a 120 miles per hour, racing to the next red light or traffic jam. It seems like it is man's natural state to go nowhere in a hurry. Reflection is for when you are young! When you go to school and learn! When you enter you're first years of corporate life! As if the reflection benefit ratio is only in the plus during the amount of time it takes for us to 'mature'. Hurry up and stay! Now is the time to produce and become a 'productive' member of society! Play is over! No time for frivolous thoughts or discussions on subjects not directly related to being productive. No chatting allowed! Retirement at 65!

This is wrong on so many levels, that I don't really know where to begin. Peter F. Drucker just past away at 95, he started his career in 1946 arguing that managers should give workers the power to make decisions and take the initiative. Why are many companies still not following this very sensible advice? I think it's because for that to happen you need to know where you want to go, how you want to get there and what you are willing to do to get there, as an individual and as a group or company. That is impossible without wisdom and wisdom is impossible without reflection. At the current speed with which we are changing, it is also impossible to do alone.

The problem is, this takes time and effort and we are so busy getting faster, that we do not want to take the time or effort to reflect on where we are going. I am not saying everything we do is getting nowhere, that is just an exaggeration to prove a point. The point being that we are not taking the time anymore to wonder were we are going, let alone whether we even want to go there. What about enjoyment, what about being master of your own destiny, what about personal leadership. A case in point. In the Netherlands the media is full of the lack of leadership in our country. I agree with the sentiment, but not with the proposed solutions. What we forget is that most leadership is context dependent. Being context dependent, it is essential we give our potential leaders the time and space to find out how their leadership potential fits into the context within which they are to operate. They need to be given room to grow into their potential and that takes play and reflection, individually as well as in a group. It also takes time to gather experience. The problem is; we seem to think that training is enough. Another quick fix to satisfy our need for speed.

There is a very old saying; Think before you act! Take time to reflect on the challenge you are facing and look at both the short term and long term impact of possible solutions. Talk with different people and cherish the dissonant who forces you to look at what you are doing from a different perspective. We need to change our natural state from one where we go nowhere at a 120 miles per hour, to making sure that we get to were we want to go!