Strategic Timeout

It's a cliche that time is the only true finite resource. It cannot be bought, lent or produced. However, how we use it is on us. We, the inhabitants of 21st century, are arguably the most efficient "controllers" of time with enormous leaps in science that liberated extra minutes for each of us through multiple tech and process innovations. In our race against time, we have learnt to adapt to a fast-paced life at home, office and everywhere else. Now, that pace is lost as the world has come to a sudden stand-still.

The time today is commonly cited as "unprecedented times" and rightly so. We don't have the businesses we are accustomed to, we are working from home, we are spending more time with our families than ever before, we are panic-stricken, we cannot plan ahead, we have no idea what's going on and how or when is this going to end. There is no reference book or trainings that can help us out of this. It's only us, stuck in this moment; together. But one thing is certain, what we did before won't work further. The traditional formulas of "using time effectively" is now a legacy and is in dire need of renovation.

With business targets gone for a toss and out-of-home entertainments off the table, suddenly we are again the prisoner of our minds. It feels like we have been handed out a "strategic timeout" to take a break from all the hustle-bustle and take a breather to regain focus, slow things down and re-strategise just like they do at the brink of tense chases in IPL matches. And how many a times have the match direction changed right out of the break! I have no doubt that the direction of our lives will take dramatic shift once we are back on the race-track in a post-COVID world. Whether we end up on the winning side depends on the way we utilise this "strategic timeout". Never in our generation's history has the current time become such an important commodity.

The word "strategy" itself is pretty heavy and sounds like a tough thing to do. Also, the word is deeply associated with business and often deemed as a responsibility of the top management. But there is hardly any business for most industries and the recovery plans are as unpredictable as the COVID-19 virus itself. So now is probably the best time to build our own strategy regarding our businesses, jobs, tasks, lives, dreams, passions and even vacations. It's a big break given to us by mother nature to think more and do less [as there is only little you can actually do], a practice we have long foregone while chasing our targets.

In the last few weeks while working from home, I have spent incredible amount of time re-raising questions on my Fifa skills, losing to lower-rated players in online chess, binge watching, delving into English Literature, diving deeply into religious studies and playing meaningless games with my 1-year old son. But what I enjoy the most is the time I have to think and reflect on each of these experiences. It's opening new perspectives for me. I am learning to slow down, analyse each experience and think deeply about abundant possibilities/reasons. An output of that is this article today, which in my honest humble opinion is a low-quality write-up but I had to restart writing someday and I asked why not today? My fear of failure is slowly starting to evade as my fear of COVID grows.

Photo: This is how WFH really feels like! PS. That's not me.

This additional time I am getting to think is having tangible positive impact on my professional life too. Want to point out a few:

1. Well Thought E-mails - Earlier, I used to get small windows between array of scheduled/unscheduled meetings, so I had to use the little windows to respond to emails or maybe use my commute time to do the same. So naturally, the quality and the temperament of the mails suffered, requiring longer mail threads. Now, as I am slowing down, I take more time to respond and make mails more succinct and meaningful while getting rid of unnecessary emotions. Even for fresh mail threads, I deliberately take a few hours break from ideation to execution which has allowed me to be more organised with my thoughts as I have sufficient time to consider multiple-perspectives.
2. Meeting Attendance - When you are physically at office, you often get dragged into unscheduled meetings and even scheduled ones that possibly doesn't need you. Sometimes we have to do it just because it looks awkward if we don't while continuing to work at our desks. When working from home, I have to continuously juggle between work and home. So I have to prioritise specific times of the day when I need to take care of the kid, take bath or eat with family. It's not possible to have meetings at those times. The additional time I have has allowed me to carefully evaluate all the scheduled meetings and decide which I need to attend and which I don't. My non-attendance in certain meeting is saving my time and also other's time as I am not interjecting in things that concerns me little.
3. Involving relevant stakeholders only - It's a very good practice to involve multiple stakeholders from various functions for making business decisions. However, many a times too many voices spoil the objective of the meeting and/or delay decisions. When physically at office, you are sometimes compelled to engage colleagues in certain meetings for the sake of relationships or just because that person is there. In a remote world that is nullified. You have sufficient time to plan and invite stakeholders who actually hold a role in the meeting. This change has significantly saved meeting time and made communications simpler for all the parties involved.
4. Learning to let go - I am not physically at office, so naturally I am not in loop of everything my team or other teams are doing. I am a person who likes to keep pace with business. But working away from team means adjusting to the fact that I won't know everything from the word go. The need for scheduled update meetings with other teams and own has now become an effective way of keeping abreast of what's happening around. Initially I was feeling a little anxious and left out for not being part of some processes, but as time is passing I am learning to lean into projects and processes that I have a stake in while just staying informed on the others.
5. People development - People are our most important assets. But when you have targets on your head, almost every 1v1 or development conversation leads to performance discussions. With COVID in play, the discussions are now much more capability and potential focused. The extra time is also allowing me to learn more about the background and passion of my direct reports which is helping me engage with them in a more personalised manner. I think this is probably the only time when I will be able to dedicate sufficient time and effort in their development.
6. Start from Scratch - With businesses taking a pause or tumble, this is a great opportunity to scrap existing processes and try new ones. I, now, have sufficient time in my disposal to remodel the way I think the business should operate and build compelling cases where needed. At a business at usual time, this thought is often a luxury with solid opportunity cost of business loss due to new process failing.

This unique experience that we are going through will surely shape the way we think and evaluate our professional and personal lives. WFH has proven that the era of 9-5 is gone. You don't need a huge physical office to run businesses. The definition of business sustainability has evolved with focus on more cash and lesser assets. With so many jobs in line, people might be inclined to pursue their dreams and work independently. The way we interact socially will change with simple things like handshakes no longer being a part of business etiquettes. People will possibly take more leaves and spend on vacations than buying real estates. All-in-all, the world we know is changing for better or worse. To adapt in this new world, we need to be prepared with a plan for ourselves with newer perspectives and versatile thoughts gained from all the unrelated activities this extra time is allowing us to engage in. What better time to think and reflect than this strategic timeout?

Author Notes: I am an amateur writer with limited writing experience. I have reconnected with my old hobby of reading books. That's the only way I can travel at the moment. May this pandemic go away and we get to fly amidst the clouds once again.