Time versus Timing
People obsess over time but what makes the difference is timing
We are terrible at time. We have no instinct for it. We didn’t evolve with clocks or watches. We can’t see time, and we can’t experience it with any dependable objectivity. Our brains aren’t equipped for any regular, measurable sense of time, whatsoever. We just suck at time.
Timing is a different story. We’re great at timing. It’s built right into our nervous systems. When we let go of time-boxed schedules and rigid calendars, our bodies and our minds know just when to do things. And if we don’t know as individuals, we know as groups, as tribes, as societies. The cycles and the seasons are in us.
Chronos versus Kairos
The difference between time and timing is the difference between Chronos and Kairos. Chronos is quantitative; Kairos is qualitative. Chronos is from the Ancient Greek khronos for chronological or sequential “time.” This is the time of clocks and stopwatches. This sort of time that marches inexorably onward.
If you’ve ever seen a crouching cat wiggling its butt, getting ready to pounce, you have witnessed kairos …
Kairos is the Ancient Greek for “the opportune moment.” (In modern Greek it means “weather.”) This is the sort of time that comes and goes in moments, and circles back on itself in cycles and seasons. Kairos compresses, stretches, and bends time into loops.
We can feel Kairos in our bodies and minds. Our involuntary physical reflexes exist for kairos. Our instincts are built upon kairos. If you’ve ever seen a crouching cat wiggling its butt, getting ready to pounce, you have witnessed kairos … preparing for the opportune moment for action. If you’ve ever said, “wait for it —” … this is a kairos.
Coffee can make any time feel like the right time.
Businesses obsess over time
When it comes to the working world, the industrial revolution and scientific management have trained us to be concerned with chronological time. We work on schedules, and if something doesn’t work according to plan, we work extra hard to make it on time. Coffee certainly helps make any given time in our schedule feel like the right moment. Perhaps businesses obsess over time because it can be accounted for, while timing cannot.
The problem is that this completely ignores the cyclical nature of our biology, psychology, and the world we inhabit. We fill out Gantt charts but ignore our very nature. As I have said in the past, Gantt charts are just detailed maps of all the ways your plans will fall apart. (I call them Cantt charts when I’m feeling salty.)
Timing is what makes the difference
As we plan our work, make our roadmaps, fill our backlogs, and pencil in our calendars, we would do well to recognize that time is often not the right tool for the job. Timing, and a proper sense of it, is what we need. Our plans should account for kairos, not chronos.
In action, be aware of the time and the season. No fight; No blame.
— Lao Tzu, Jane English translation of Tao Te Ching
I used to work as an administrator for an acupuncture school. I learned a lot about Taoist philosophy and the yin and yang of the world. People would tell me stories, and some of those stories have stuck with me to this day. One in particular applies to time and timing. I’m told it comes from Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching (although I have not been able to find an reference). I will tell it here as I remember it being told to me over 15 years ago.
The Old Man and the Fisherman
An old man sat by the sea and watched a young fisherman bring his boat to the water. The fisherman pushed into the waves with great vigor, fighting to get through the breakers to the open water. He fought hard, but the waves beat him back until the fisherman washed up on the shore and passed out from exhaustion.
After a time, the old man saw the fisherman rise up and try to push his way to sea again. Once more, the fisherman became exhausted, passing out on the shore.
The fisherman awoke to make his third attempt. This time the old man stood up, walked to the fisherman, and said, “Wait.” In an hour’s time the waves died down as the tide began to ebb.
“Every time you fought the waves, the tide was coming in. And every time you slept, the tide was going out. Now your way is clear.”
Salmon have it figured out
Salmon begin life in the calm, nurturing waters of the upriver gravel beds, where their eggs can hatch and the babies can hide from predators. After they grow enough to go out to sea, they swim with the current downriver. It isn’t until they have grown to adult size and strength that they can make the swim back up the river to spawn. They swim with the current when they are small, and against the current when they are strong.
If you’re a grizzly bear, you’ll want to hang out by the river when the fish are big and jumping. You need those extra calories so you can get fat enough to survive a long winter’s hibernation.
Efficiency is a matter of time
Over the last 15 years I have participated in three organizations that wanted to smooth out the cyclical nature of their businesses. Two were tied to the school year, and one was bound to the retail calendar. They all operated with high seasons, each with increased sales activity followed by some intense, long days of operations. They also had low seasons, when there was excess capacity, lower revenues, and time for everyone to recover and “sharpen their saws.”
In each case, the organization wanted to take advantage of their excess capacity. They reasoned that by opening up new lines of business they would fill in the troughs and thereby even out the revenue streams. The acupuncture school switched from semesters to trimesters, allowing for classes to happen year-round, and an eventual “standing wave” of three entering classes each year. The second organization launched ambitious initiatives outside of the retail holiday season that kept our customers and their consumers engaged all year long.
After I witnessed the first two organiztions successfully remove the cyclicality of their businesses, I cautioned the third about the downside I saw in those successes. I told them, “you think you want to fill in all the troughs, but you may not realize what it will cost you.”
Effectiveness is a matter of timing
The problem with using excess capacity on new business is that it requires more time and effort from everyone, all the time. While people had been drawn thin during seasonal peaks in the past, they no longer had the benefit of low seasons to rest and recover. When those troughs went away, people never fully regained their vitality, which led to downturns in peak performance. Smoothing out the troughs also took a little off the top.
The overall effect was an increase in revenue and more efficient businesses. However, as overall return-on-investment increased, the businesses became harder places to work, and less able to respond to unexpected outages and opportunities. When every classroom was in use, there was no longer any room to schedule an extra class or deal with any scheduling irregularities. I also found that people were just a little too stressed out to be as creative as they might have been in the past. It was also more stressful to know there was never a good time to rest … never a time when “the tide would go your way.”
To get the right timing, you might have to spend a little extra time.
I think the biggest downside to gaining efficiency was the effectiveness we lost in the process. That is to say, these organizations sacrificed some of their ability to take advantage of kairotic moments. From a shareholder perspective, perhaps the organizations improved their bottom line, but from a human perspective they were less sustainable. Ironically, the way these organizations ultimately overcame issues around resilience and responsiveness was to increase capacity; they had to become less effecient to regain their effectiveness. To get the right timing, you might have to spend a little extra time.
