Distracted by a manager dropping by his cubicle wanting to chat, he forgets to schedule a follow-up call.
⢠An office employee is beginning to dislike a co-worker for her lax attitude towards punctuality on the projects sheâs been assigned. She puts her thoughts into a vindictive email and sends it to their mutual manager.
⢠A junior in a professional services firm gets exasperated by the fact that the senior partner keeps sending tasks for her to do by email, even though they work side by side. The junior recognizes that additional tasks are part of the job, but she feels that her senior is unaware of her current workload and unappreciative of her efforts and initiative.
These are examples of opportunities for interpersonal contact that have been eroded due to ambient momentum and the walls of the cubicle environment. In all of the cases above, solutions or resolutions could have been found and resolved faster if the people involved had known a little more about the value of human connection within the business process.
⢠The accountant, for example, could recognize that he need not be solely the bearer of bad news, but that he could apply his expertise to become part of the solution. With only a little courage he could guide his client through her short-term challenges and stay with her as a regular, reliable, and recommended supplier of business. She, in turn, would stay with him as a loyal client and a possible source of referral business.
⢠The employee who sent out the standardized, yet incorrect, email response could have increased his sales and won over the dissatisfied client by taking the time to talk to her on the phone, to agree with her complaints, and to demonstrate his acknowledgement of her distress as the first step in resolving the situation to her liking.
⢠The office employee who dislikes her colleagueâs lax behavior might do better to visit and talk with her, perhaps in the company of a third person as mediator, in order to learn more about where sheâs really coming from. Perhaps there are circumstances beyond the office walls that are contributing to this personâs conduct.
⢠The final example highlights the disconnect that often happens between members of a closely knit team when clear communication and mutual understanding get shunted aside. The junior partnerâs talents are going wasted due to confusion, frustration, and anonymity. By working together, the two of them should be able to exceed the sum of their individual contributions.
The stories above might appear to be isolated examples. But they are analogies for many hundreds of other types of situations in which people miss out on faster, more productive opportunities due to personal blur. Itâs as destructive to individual efficiency as intellectual isolation is to groups. By being consciously aware of its presence, you will be able to identify blur as a threat and then strategize how best to cool down in order to achieve your goals more quickly and efficiently.
Ambient Momentum and the Departure Lounge
To demonstrate, letâs make a parable out of two travelers in an airport departure lounge. This again is a situation-specific scenario whose lessons extend to many other areas of life.
Itâs hard not to be caught up by the tension of travel. Itâs a rootless existence where people stand halfway between home and their new destination, unable to access either. They battle jetlag, fatigue, and exasperation, while having to keep their wits about them to avoid missing important announcements. It may seem that boredom or frustration is the theme of the airport departure lounge, not personal blur. But letâs observe how, when the moment hits, itâs the cool, clear thinker who wins out.
Two travelers, Frank and Ernest, are sitting in the departure lounge. The PA system announces that due to a last-minute equipment change, the plane for their flight has been changed to
⢠An office employee is beginning to dislike a co-worker for her lax attitude towards punctuality on the projects sheâs been assigned. She puts her thoughts into a vindictive email and sends it to their mutual manager.
⢠A junior in a professional services firm gets exasperated by the fact that the senior partner keeps sending tasks for her to do by email, even though they work side by side. The junior recognizes that additional tasks are part of the job, but she feels that her senior is unaware of her current workload and unappreciative of her efforts and initiative.
These are examples of opportunities for interpersonal contact that have been eroded due to ambient momentum and the walls of the cubicle environment. In all of the cases above, solutions or resolutions could have been found and resolved faster if the people involved had known a little more about the value of human connection within the business process.
⢠The accountant, for example, could recognize that he need not be solely the bearer of bad news, but that he could apply his expertise to become part of the solution. With only a little courage he could guide his client through her short-term challenges and stay with her as a regular, reliable, and recommended supplier of business. She, in turn, would stay with him as a loyal client and a possible source of referral business.
⢠The employee who sent out the standardized, yet incorrect, email response could have increased his sales and won over the dissatisfied client by taking the time to talk to her on the phone, to agree with her complaints, and to demonstrate his acknowledgement of her distress as the first step in resolving the situation to her liking.
⢠The office employee who dislikes her colleagueâs lax behavior might do better to visit and talk with her, perhaps in the company of a third person as mediator, in order to learn more about where sheâs really coming from. Perhaps there are circumstances beyond the office walls that are contributing to this personâs conduct.
⢠The final example highlights the disconnect that often happens between members of a closely knit team when clear communication and mutual understanding get shunted aside. The junior partnerâs talents are going wasted due to confusion, frustration, and anonymity. By working together, the two of them should be able to exceed the sum of their individual contributions.
The stories above might appear to be isolated examples. But they are analogies for many hundreds of other types of situations in which people miss out on faster, more productive opportunities due to personal blur. Itâs as destructive to individual efficiency as intellectual isolation is to groups. By being consciously aware of its presence, you will be able to identify blur as a threat and then strategize how best to cool down in order to achieve your goals more quickly and efficiently.
Ambient Momentum and the Departure Lounge
To demonstrate, letâs make a parable out of two travelers in an airport departure lounge. This again is a situation-specific scenario whose lessons extend to many other areas of life.
Itâs hard not to be caught up by the tension of travel. Itâs a rootless existence where people stand halfway between home and their new destination, unable to access either. They battle jetlag, fatigue, and exasperation, while having to keep their wits about them to avoid missing important announcements. It may seem that boredom or frustration is the theme of the airport departure lounge, not personal blur. But letâs observe how, when the moment hits, itâs the cool, clear thinker who wins out.
Two travelers, Frank and Ernest, are sitting in the departure lounge. The PA system announces that due to a last-minute equipment change, the plane for their flight has been changed to
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