“I hate the feeling of not doing anything that I don’t think is productive.”Īnd some resisted reflecting, saying it was easier to focus on the here-and-now, rather than look down the road where they might be forced to grapple with the uncertainty of the future. As one manager said, “I go from commitments at home to commitments at work … I have very little me time.” Others had trouble keeping their thoughts from relentlessly zig-zagging all over the place, or felt restless taking time to sit and think. What the design principles provide is a template for sound reflection in a hectic world.įor many of the managers Badaracco interviewed, the biggest obstacle to reflecting was acute time pressure. Like design principles in art and architecture, they don’t explain precisely what to do and when. Instead, they practice the art of reflection “in the cracks and crevices of their everyday lives” to help them make better decisions day by day and problem by problem.īadaracco recommends four design principles for reflection. He found that almost all of them do reflect, but they don’t necessarily rely on long periods of solitude. In addition, Badaracco interviewed more than 100 managers, ranging from supervisors to CEOs, from 15 countries to learn how busy men and women today find time for reflection. “We often get advice to reflect, and we often give the advice to reflect. To answer this question, Badaracco studied classic works of reflection, including Meditations by Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Spiritual Exercises by Jesuit order founder Ignatius Loyola, Essays by philosopher Michel de Montaigne, as well as many diaries and journals of leaders. “And how do busy people find time to reflect?” Yet reflection is important it gives us a chance to pause and figure out what really matters, especially when struggling with a difficult issue professionally or personally, says Joseph Badaracco, the John Shad Professor of Business Ethics at Harvard Business School, in his new book Step Back: How to Bring the Art of Reflection into Your Busy Life. It can be tough to step off the daily merry-go-round, put our phones, laptops, and to-do lists aside, and find decent chunks of quiet time to reflect on our lives. Many of us feel time-pressured, tethered to our smartphones so we can stay on top of work and home responsibilities.
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