Creating space for possibilities

Creating space for possibilities

by Dirk Depré - March 22, 2023

"How are you doing?" The other person then says: "I'm busy, really busy." Most likely that busy person is really busy with busyness and busy things. Sometimes work just seem to come from everywhere and you have to manage your time well. Sometimes work is overflowing and it could feel overwhelming. Sometimes you are just working on a thousand things at the same time. You try to stay on top of things while you are running at 100%. Your engine starts overheating, the processing power in your brain isn't able to cope with the overload of information. Time to take a break despite all the work! You simply don't have flow...

Looking back at the future of work reports 2015, 2020 and 2025 by the World Economic forum, in which top 10 work skills are identified for the years to come, you notice that there is a focus on skills that need the power of our brain, not just the execution on tasks. But what happens if you are always being very busy for that 100% of your time? You end up being really busy with busyness, right? Creativity has been in that top 10 since 2015. Problem-solving skills matter a lot. 5 out the 10 skills for 2025 require problem-solving skills and thus this is making use of the power of our brain. But is ‘thinking’ being busy?

In one of the videos of Henrik Kniberg, he explains what he likes to call: "the resource utilization trap". In this video he states that a lot of organisations are focusing way to much on resource utilization: "Keeping people busy. And, if you focus on keeping people busy, what you get is a bunch of busy people. The lean approach is focusing on flow primarily and resource utilization secondarily. And one way to do that is through 'pull'."

And then there is also this thing: very busy busy people typically work on multiple items at the same time. This triggers another problem: the one of context switching. The research shows that context switching is not beneficial at all:

• even brief mental blocks can cost as much of 40% of an individual's productive time

• it takes an average of 23 minutes to regain focus after a distraction

• the average person can only keep 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their working memory

• a field study in 'rethinking productivity in software engineering' showed developers switched 13 timer per hour and spend only 6 minutes on a task before switching to another

• developers working on 2 or 3 projects spend an average 17% of their effort on context switching between tasks from different projects.

• heavy context switching can lower your IQ, temporarily, up to 15 point.

Remember this: the switch itself takes only a few tenths of a second. However, the cost of each switch is huge: it takes more time to complete a task and more errors are likely to happen.

But what has this to do with "creativity"?
"Dad, I am bored." said my daughter when she was 4 years old on a Saturday morning. "Okay, enjoy it", was my answer. 3 minutes later:"Dad, I am really bored". The "really" in her sentence made such a huge difference and I said: "Great, it's something you can learn to do: just be bored for a while." 5 minutes later: "Dad, I am bored to the brink of insanity." Which resulted in my answer: "Thank you for letting me know." I know my answer to my daughter were frustrating for her because I didn't offer her any solution to her problem. But then the magic happened. After sitting in the couch and doing nothing for some time (I'm talking about minutes), she got her stuff and started drawing. She figured out on herself that there are things she can do and she gave herself the time to find out what it is that she wants to do. Since watching TV was not an option (you can see that as an easy way to keep your kid busy), she had to think for herself and come up with ideas. The time that she was not doing things, provided the space to think about what she wanted to do.

The 5 problem-solving skills according to the World Economic Forum for 2025 are:

• analytical thinking and innovation,

• complex problem solving,

• critical thinking and analysis,

• creativity, originality and initiative,

• reasoning, problem solving and ideation.

So, in the industry where thinking has become the main asset, how important is it to create the space where thinking can actually happen?

Once again this is why leadership plays an important role in shaping an environment in which people are able to create that space, are empowered to create that space, feel safe enough to use that space in which they can actually use their problem-solving skills.

Finding that balance is important. You could argue that when a person is busy thinking, it looks like that person is not really working. I think we should call that out as 'last-century work thinking', and even then... By the way, how many times have you had that brilliant idea when you were taking a shower or riding a bike or walking with your dog? All of a sudden that epiphany is there, but those things don't come out of nowhere. It's when we ease the chaos in our minds that we create space for possibilities.

Photo by pine watt on Unsplash

I have to admit. I'm one of those people that are often very busy busy busy. And every once in a while, I don't see the big picture anymore. That is a very frustrating day. I can't complete any work, I can't finish the simplest tasks, I feel overwhelmed and I struggle and by the end of the day I have accomplished nothing... or so it seems. The things is that those days are the most important ones for me. That is when I take distance from my work, where I just acknowledge that it is just not going to be the best performance, that is the day where I subconsciously create the space for 'spring cleaning': de-prioritize and prioritize, think different about things, overcome obstacles or see possibilities rather that barriers. I used to feel bad about those days, now I just think I need a bit more of those days from time to time so I get the work done that actually matters in stead of just being busy with busyness and busy things.

When are your spring-cleaning days?
When do you take the time to be just be bored?
Just get back in your flow...