- Leandro Herrero - https://leandroherrero.com -

Reflection is subversive. Uprise! Slow down!

Space to reflect? Where is that? Are you saying we are not reflective? Don’t we have an intelligence? Are you suggesting we don’t think properly?

Hey! Hold on! Stop the shooting.

Believe me, some people get offended. They may not express it as vocal as this.

Reflection needs space. And time. Which is the same thing but twice.

I really love the analogy (discovered in Julian Baggini’s new book, ‘How the world thinks’) of being in a train at high speed and being only able to see a blurred landscape through the window. Only slowing down will let you see the trees and the country with all the details.

Many organization run at high speed. People are unable to reflect on those trees because they can’t see them. The subversive thing to say, and do, is slow down, pause, breath.

We have had a ‘slow food’ movement’. We need a ‘slow down the train’ one.

I know, I know, those unmanageable and irresponsible people (‘they’)  will never get anything done. What about all those 327 KPIs of the strategic plan? What is goping to happen to them? Surely not for a low speed train.

I hear that music.

Some managers/leaders are so worried about this! Yet, of course some organizations need to inject speed, not the opposite. Back to my train, some organizations are so slow-train that they always see the same tree. Some are so insanely speedy that they can’t see any tree.

Leaders are in charge of speed limits. Up or down.

Cruise control as a leaders key competence.