Want to be effective? Take a break

In today’s digitally driven and social media saturated world, leaders are increasingly expected to process and react in real time to the steady stream of information coming at us from multiple directions. Often, the need for immediacy trumps the ability to be thoughtful and purposeful in our approach.

Earlier this fall, I wrote about the need for leaders to build “moments of quiet” into their daily professional lives. Moments of quiet… meaning: purposeful periods of stillness and reflection as precursors to effective action.

 Then, as if on cue, I met Juliet Funt, CEO of the training and consulting firm WhiteSpace at Work. She and her colleagues specialize in helping companies help their employees reduce low value activities in favor of time to think, reflect, and take mental breaths within whatever organization and system they work.

Juliet calls the strategic pauses taken between activities “WhiteSpace.” Her premise is that companies that embed WhiteSpace opportunities into their work environment enable a more creative, productive and engaged workforce. (I know she practices what she preaches, because after speaking to a couple of hundred women financial advisors at RBC Wealth Management, she found a chair down the hall for a minute or two of reflection.)

After her presentation at RBC, I had the occasion to ask Juliet a few questions about her WhiteSpace framework and approach. I hope her responses prompt you to pause and reflect. (And if you like what she has to say, I suggest you read the lead article in last Sunday’s New York Times Review, headlined, “Addicted to Distraction”, by Tony Schwartz. The article certainly hit home for me.)

 Why is WhiteSpace so important for leaders and employees alike?

“There are so many reasons it’s hard to know where to begin. When talented people work in seamlessly connected activities throughout the day – without the time to pause, think and reboot – they cannot possibly deliver the creative and engaged results they were hired to deliver.

“The same is true of leaders, who, as we know, set the tone and the pace for their broader group, business line or company as a whole. When leaders get pulled into this frenzied work-style they lose the ability to create a thoughtful legacy, and to treat their teams to an environment where pace and cadence support elevated results in a sustainable way. When a function, line of business or entire organization loses the ability to be thoughtful employees can fall into a norm that will raise burn out, turnover, turnover intention, and missed creative opportunities.”

What role does technology play in creating the frenzied pace and pressure that makes finding WhiteSpace so difficult?

“Due to its ever-present availability and seductive nature, technology now fills the seams in our transition time. What this means is that every moment we might have had a thoughtful pause, we can now easily fill with a high-stimulation, low-level activity; and in doing so sacrifice the opportunity to look ahead at our company’s trajectory, to look within at ourselves or to look around for the next game changing “ah-ha” moment that might grace us with its presence. Rich and powerful ideas can’t find an entry point into our minds when the space is taken up with mindless scrolling, flipping between apps and getting lost in our inboxes.”

In today’s hypercompetitive world, how do we change people’s viewpoints that they need to be constantly attached to their devices to be seen as valuable to their employers?

“Employers must go first if we are to ever break this cycle. The most evolved of leaders we meet with are looking around the corner and see that the way we are working today is not sustainable or optimal. They are willing to change their own definition of productivity first; moving away from the mindless busywork and over-complex structures toward simplicity and thoughtfulness. However, throwing out an email etiquette class or No Meeting Wednesday cannot correct this entrenched problem. These leaders also must commit to this transition as a profoundly important culture change that deserves attention and resources.”

What can companies do to encourage WhiteSpace?

“They must begin first with Mindsets before Skillsets. Diving in too fast to the course correction stage can backfire in the end. A great first step is to have a “Jane Goodall” phase where contributors are simply encouraged to observe and record instances where complexity or reactivity are hampering their ability to deliver. In this phase we encourage employers and employees to abstain from changes and simply observe. The next step is to do what we would do if working through a WhiteSpace culture change within an organization: Look for opportunities to be reductive. Organizations must look for where and how they can let go of meetings, systems, old initiatives, to-do, extra emails in order to take weight out of the system.”

Should people incorporate WhiteSpace into their non-work lives as well? Why? What is the benefit?

“Yes! It’s my favorite thing- watching folks take WhiteSpace home. When the habit of valuing open, unscheduled time takes root it is natural to make your evenings and weekends less busy- to be more present for children and loved ones and coincidentally to work harder at work because time at home has given us the proper rest and fuel to return the next morning with gusto.”

John G. Taft is CEO of RBC Wealth Management - U.S. and author of A Force for Good (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). RBC Wealth Management-U.S. is a division of RBC Capital Markets, LLC, a member of NYSE/FINRA/SIPC.