Meyer points out that The measurement systems of most corporations are
better equipped to serve the needs of Wall Street . . . than they are
those who run the business. . . . Imagine what it would be like driving a
car if the speedometer indicated how fast you were going ninety days ago.
(p. 49) Cycle time offers management and employees alike a more
fundamental, bottom-line means for continuous improvement no matter what
the business process being measured: Is anything more continuously
available than time?
Although these books highlight the importance of challenging time limits,
they dont challenge the confusing Western identification of objective,
physical time and psychological time: in other words, they do not
distinguish outer speed from inner speed. For example, McKenna defines
*real time* as our sense of ultracompressed time, which has a strong
component of psychological time, and yet he devotes almost all of his book
to a discussion of shortening clock time cycles.
Perhaps the worst consequence of this confusion is that no significant
opportunity is seen for decreasing our *personal processing times.* Were
fascinated, even obsessed, with ways to do things faster, but we focus on
technology and external speed, almost never on ways to improve internal
speeds. These days we talk about managing knowledge, but we do it
solely from outside, not seeing the possibility of changing the speed with
which an individual processes information. Imagine when driving that you
could be aware of your environs five times per second rather than once.
Wouldnt you be much more relaxed and in control?
As Stephan Rechtschaffen points out in *Timeshifting*, unless we learn to
shift our inner speeds, we will probably get more stressed out as time
continues to accelerate. And if we truly wish to shorten external process
cycles, we need to take into account the fact that all such opportunity is
limited by our ability to perceive it: Any process--work or otherwise--is
known only through our experience, which in turn is always limited by our
individual and personal processing time.
I've written an article which is based on twenty-one years of research on
*time*, and which (1) distinguishes clock time from psychological or
personal time (how frequently you know whats around you when youre
driving, e.g.), (2) brings a larger, more comprehensive system into view
by balancing the emphasis on technology and objective time with an
exploration of how we can change our *experience* of time, and (3) opens
up new levels of performance and well-being. Clarifying these matters is
important because our obsession with external speed obscures what can be
learned about psychological time, and because learning is the only truly
inexhaustible source of competitive advantage. (Meyer, p. 23)
If you want to look at the article I wrote, go to
http://members.aol.com/rslts, and then under "Hot New Resources," click on
"Beat the Clock by Changing Your Personal Time
Best wishes,
Steve Randall, Ph.D. - Results in No Time - email: stevrandal@aol.com
Time Management Supersite: http://members.aol.com/rslts
Site includes complete time management courses and resource directory
land: 1124 Ballena Boulevard, Suite 5, Alameda CA 94501
phone & fax: 510-749-9931 tollfree 800-845-8484
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