Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Jerry Scott. We hope you enjoy Jerry’s wisdom and perspective.
A paradox in today’s world is that the digital age has made us more efficient in many ways but perhaps less effective in others. And the scale appears to be tipping precipitously in the direction of less.
I remember green screen email that could only be sent inside the company network and one paragraph at a time. Think of some great prehistoric Twitter. Write more than a paragraph and you had to say “continued” and then type a new email. An inter-office memo would take six emails.
The evolution over the past 30 years to today’s capacity for information exchange is breathtaking. The obvious trade-off is the torrent of information coming at all of us each day. For those of us heavily invested in the social network, to engage employees, potential recruits, prospects, and clients it seems like hundreds of times more information comes at us each day. This desire to interact and to be in the know means, for me, that I almost never let up. I am engaged in information flow, of one kind or another, from 4:30am to 9:00pm - seven days a week, 365 days a year. It is easy to dismiss the potential downside by the thought that doing what you love isn’t work.
But I have been troubled of late. The source? It began with a perceptive blog written by one a millennial, posing the question whether the pursuit of contentment in life indicated complacency. When was the last time I used the word contentment in reference to my life? To tell the truth, I’m not sure I can say I have ever felt contented and that bothered me. However, as I pondered the question I began to suspect it had something to do with the level of noise in my life. So I decided to try an experiment.
We were taking our daughter and son-in-law on our first vacation as a foursome over Spring Break - a cruise south from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Because this trip was special, I decided to go on a digital detox. So we landed in San Juan and went to the resort to spend the night before the cruise departure. I snapped one picture of the beach, shared it on Facebook, and holding my breath, shut down my iPhone and iPad for eight straight days with shaky hands and all.
Granted vacation is a highly artificial environment. Next to no stress or demands and surrounded by people paid to please. But factoring out the pure hedonism of being on vacation, the first thing I noticed was a faint level of anxiety. Not curiosity about what was happening exactly. More that I didn’t know what to do with myself when I had small amounts of unused time. Like a rat tapping a pedal for more treats, I was used to getting constant mental and perhaps emotional stimulation by reaching for the device and plugging in. What the heck can I do with 10 minutes to spare sitting on a balcony overlooking the stunningly beautiful Caribbean Sea? Think about something? Just be? I am happy to say the strange anxiety only lasted a couple of days. I started to enjoy having small amounts of time to do nothing but think. And then something remarkable happened. I heard something that I haven’t heard in awhile. I heard the still, small voice.
Like Elijah on Mount Sinai, I learned a long time ago that there is a connection point to the divine - not in the wind, earthquake, or fire but in the still, small voice down inside. The voice is kind and infused with the wisdom that comes from all the mistakes I’ve made in my life, everything I have read and all the hard lessons I have learned. And although the wisdom is there, the voice sounds like mine. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to hear. But I know for sure noise blocks it out and now the noise was gone. Once more I was asking and listening. What I heard in the quiet was this.
Find and use your voice with courage. I am so inspired by the courage shown by Maria Schroeder’s writings about her struggle with an eating disorder, books written by friends like Tim Leman, Liz Nierzwicki, and Craig Sroda, and blogs written by individuals like Brittany Kirk, Andrew Graman, and Andrew Schroeder about work life balance and servant leadership. I resolved to continue to search for my voice and to contribute meaning and resonance.
Do the things you know are right. Be fit, eat healthy, read often, and think deeply. And understand that contentment is just as worthy a pursuit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
And so it came to pass that we found ourselves back in the San Juan airport with time to kill before flying back to Chicago. Sitting by a window I looked across the tarmac at the palm trees and then down at my backpack. There was the bulge of my iPhone. I pulled it out and felt the cool sleekness. The supercomputer that could have easily powered the Apollo space mission. I lovingly pushed the power button and watched the alerts and email counts spool up like a slot machine jackpot. The perky Meg Ryan voice, “You’ve got mail.” 762 emails that is. My finger paused with anticipation above the email icon as I looked out at the palm trees swaying in the soft warm breeze. I could hear my family talking and laughing in the background. So I asked the question and closed my eyes. In a moment the answer came. Soft. My voice but with a Caribbean accent. Mañana, Jerry. Mañana.
What’s The Risk?
There is no doubt that the business has to win in order to survive and thrive. But so does the heart, mind, and spirit of our teammates. Our challenge as leaders is to figure out how to engineer an improving margin and quality of life through technology, innovation, and intelligence. If our business process won’t afford silence and reflection from time to time, the opportunity cost in that moment is incalculable. Intuition and creativity are key elements to drive forward. And our example, the pace we set and how much we connect or disconnect, sends signals to our people. Let’s make sure the signals are healthy and sustainable.
This content was written and shared by guest blogger, Jerry Scott. Connect with Jerry on LinkedIn and Twitter.
