Subtractive Enhancement meets Maslow

Three Ideas Collide.

ONE: I was recently invited to breakfast in a restaurant at The Opus Omniyat, designed by Zaha Hadid. Besides the amazing #architecture and structural engineering of the building, I was struck by the idea that a 'hollowed out' building loses a vast amount of floor space, which in central Dubai goes at such a premium, that the rest of the space must have huge value for the building to be viable. This led me to explore Subtractive Enhancement in more detail as a value-shifting philosophy. The idea behind subtractive enhancement is that by removing parts of a 'cube' shaped building, you improve sunlight, airflow, aesthetic design and ultimately; the quality of life of people in the building, as a trade-off to the lost of floor space. Additive enhancement, on the other hand, is the increasing of floors, footprint, functionality and features in order to add value.

TWO: Listening to Daniel Pink at the recent Vistage Worldwide, Inc. #chairworld I revisited a concept that I had been using in my life for some time, that is to 'do less to achieve more', which features the use of a 'not-to-do list' (Daniel uses the To-Don't List). I constantly move the low value items from my 'to-do list' to my 'not-to-do list', either by delegation, outsourcing or simply not doing anymore (saying no!).

The additive nature of managers and executives today is to 'do more' to add value. Sell more, grow more, diversify more, increase complexity and moving parts. I found this to be an impossible route to financial freedom and work-life balance.

My subtractive approach frees up precious time for me to spend more of it on high value activities; like thinking & reading, taking care of my health, nurturing quality relationships, designing business strategies and coaching my team. It's tough to do because 'stuff' needs to get done, however the goal is to progress consistently over time, starting with baby steps. The main obstacle is the 'attachment' that we have to being busy (falsely equated to being productive) and being judged for sitting still and doing 'nothing' (because 'thinking' can't be seen).

THREE: As I get older I realise the things I need are not the things I wanted when I was younger. I prefer simplicity, understatement, quiet, few meaningful friends... generally "less". #maslow explained this with his pyramid of needs, which incidentally is also thinner at the top ;) which has us seek "physiological needs", followed by "safety", "belonging and love", "social needs" or "esteem", "self-actualization" and "transcendence". These seem to be scaling up in value, as long as the preceding need is met and can be built upon.

However, with the changes in society going on, driven by increased wealth and creature comforts, wellness and healthcare and a more enlightened and educated population (at least on paper) many of our children haven't experienced the tough situations our grandparents faced. Take the family home, for example; for our grandparents, rebuilding after the war was simply a case of having a roof over your head with adequate heating. Their children, the baby boomers, wanted more space so they could socialise and create like-minded neighbourhoods. Their children wanted their own room as independent thinking became the norm, needing more space for entertainment and outdoor activities. To afford it, they moved out to the suburbs so the space per $ balanced out.

The next generation on the other hand, tried their best to reduce commuting time in order to maximise free time for other activities. Many moved into the city and paid more, to improve #worklife time balance. They rented property because they wanted the freedom to move with their job, hoarding less material possessions.

Then the pandemic showed us that we can work remotely, so you can avoid the commute entirely, and people stated to move back out of the city - not just to the suburbs - but to another country!

And the latest trend of the #digitalnomadlifestyle , with no 'typical' home ownership or even rent to speak of, is that of living in a converted van or barge.

To me this is "Subtractive Enhancement" meets "Maslow's hierarchy of needs". It certainly solves the time-is-money paradox in many ways, by focussing on the creation of value of time vs. the cost of time. It shifts busyness to value-added work and it stops the guilty feeling that is often a key driver of our everyday activities.

We focus our business strategies on quality vs quantity, specialisation vs generalisation and relationships vs transactions. And we do so with less stress.

As we move up in life, we tend to focus more on intangible benefits, such as our health and mind, spirituality and personal development, and move away from materialism and status. That is, until something drastic knocks us down the pyramid, where we lose all our livelihood, our health or our loving relationships. This sends us tumbling down to basics that may require us to reprioritise our time and effort; arguably with a little more wisdom the second time around.