Are Humans Resources? LO15828

Simon Buckingham (go57@dial.pipex.com)
Sun, 16 Nov 1997 09:34:02 -0800

Replying to LO15810 --

> John Zavacki wrote:
> " Unfortunately, time is one of the most valuable of human
> resources and every time I read from this list, I have used more of
> mine. I am, then, At, your humble slave!! "
>
> At once wrote:
> "....I have observed how time has become the fearful master of
> many. "
>
> James wrote: "I have to say that I feel that the preciousness of time is highly
> overrated."

Time is not scarce as long as individuals have control over their own
time. Time is only scarce when we are forced to let it get trapped
inbetween structures like management hierachies, job titles and so on.
Such coercion means that time looks scarce because when we do have freedom
from our offices, we only get up to exactly one hour at the same time as
everyone else gets their lunch hour, so we have to run around getting all
the other necessary and important things done in a short space of time.
Time is in fact in abundance, there are at least 12 deployable hours every
day of every week.

About 8 months ago, I left a very busy and hectic office job and began
teleworking. This fairly simple change transformed my life for the better.
I now have the discretion to deploy my time as I see fit on whichever of
my multiple lifestreams is most active at that moment in time. I don't get
stressed battling my way through rush hour to get to work on time or
arrive home late at night tired out. My productivity- time spent on
business not busyness- has rocketed- I have so much time that I keep
writing new books every few weeks! (Teleworking is described in
http://www.unorg.com/trans and will be one of the 10 outside the
organization transformers detailed in my 5th book- which will be ready
early in 98).

Those who say that time is more important than money, or that time is the
most scarce resource and greatest competitive advantage there is, are
probably doing so under the pressures of not being in control of their
time. Ideas are the currency of the unorganized world- and they are
compeletely independent of time. You could have a flash of inspiration at
2 in the morning, I could craete an idea worth millions in a few seconds-
this goes back to the measurement thread- how do you incorporate creative
activity in organized time-based payment systems? You cannot- hence,
quality of work output is important and not quantity of time spent... 9 to
5. On the whole, we create more when we have more discretionary time,
because we can step back from busyness or intense business and see
perspective.

Regards sincerely Simon Buckingham, buck@dial.pipex.com
http://www.unorg.com
unorganization: business not busyness!

"Are you killing time, or is time killing you?" Buck

-- 

Simon Buckingham <go57@dial.pipex.com>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>