Urgency, pacing and pausing

Perspective: Urgency, pacing and pausing

I've been working intensively for the last few months, and in just over a week, I’ll have closed out a few big programs and I can let myself slow down. Bring it on, this pace doesn’t feel sustainable.

I don’t think I’m alone in feeling exhausted and overloaded. Lots of people seem to be creaking under the weight of a new level of intensity in the workplace. Is this true for you?

I remember earlier in my career, we would look at capacity. We’d stop to ask if we have capacity to deliver this. Yes or no? If it was a no, we would negotiate around timelines or additional resources. It was a very ordered way of managing work.

From what I’m observing, the capacity question rarely arises these days. The prevailing practice seems to be yes by default, and subsequently determining what to drop if, and when, we become overloaded. 

The dark side of agile working?

This is adaptive agile working, something I advocate for, but perhaps not at its finest. Perhaps this is the shadow side of agile working?

I often talk about polarities, or situations in which opposing forces within a system pull at each other to keep things balanced. Agile working and planned working form a polarity, and the real trick is in leveraging the best of both.

Planning brings order and a way of scoping what’s possible. Agile brings adaptability, a willingness to adjust as new information emerges. But if the balance tips too far toward agility, we might lose sight of capacity, and our ability to pace ourselves with the work. Urgency becomes the default setting.

And that really impacts the quality of our work. I experienced this earlier in the year when I said yes by default, and had two separate sessions to facilitate in the same day. Logistically it worked, but I hadn’t taken into account the volume of preparation each required. I put in a few very long days of prep, and I was really tired on the day itself. I got through it, but neither group experienced me at my best. Facilitation is physically and mentally demanding, and the best preparation is rest.

We undervalue pausing in modern work culture

I think we could learn a lot from ancient indigenous cultures. Here in Ireland, the Celts were deeply connected to nature and the cycling of the seasons. Samhain, or Halloween, marked the end of the harvest - the busy period (are you tracking?). Winter was a period of sacred dormancy. The Celts viewed death as a necessary part of renewal and creativity. Even in winter, when nothing is visible on the surface, seeds lie deep in the soil, resting and readying for spring.

I think I’m leaning into that Celtic energy - seeing the darkness and welcoming it. I need respite from the big energy of the past few months. I’m ready to rest deeply, to sit in silence, to stare into space. To faff around. To pause.

I'll close with a few reflection prompts: 

• How might you notice when you're moving so fast that it undermines your ability to perform? What are the signals?

• What would pausing look like for you? Is there a way to integrate pausing into how you self-manage and lead?

 Practice: Settling the busy brain

Every month I share a practice to help you lead more coherently through change. This time, continuing with the team of urgency, pacing and pausing, it’s about settling the busy brain and returning to self.  

One of the biggest barriers to personal coherence is a busy mind that never stops spinning.

You might know the feeling … ideas popping up just as you’re trying to fall asleep, the compulsion to send one more message, the pull to keep moving.

That’s dopamine, the brain’s reward system and it gives us a little chemical hit every time we tick something off the list. It’s necessary to help us get what we need, but it can also keeps us chasing the next “done”.

If you’re high on dopamine, it’s very hard to think clearly or discern what really matters so the quality of our decision making deteriorates. 

Here are some daily practices for slowing down and regaining clarity.

• Start a meditation practice, or get started by sitting for 3 minutes every day, focusing on your breath.
• Between back-to-back calls, give yourself a one-minute buffer. Even if you’re late. No phone, no messages, just close your eyes and breathe. 
• Pause before you speak. Take a breath (in and out) before you offer your perspective. 
• Get out and walk. Notice how active your mind is at the start, and again at the end.

Good Reads: Leadership as connection

This month, I want to spotlight Michael Hudson’s recent article that explores what it means to lead in these intensely fraught and uncertain times. In the article, he expands the idea of psychological safety beyond just protection from harm, and sets out a compelling vision of leaders creating connection strong enough to withstand uncertainty.

What I love most about this article is that it offers a positive alternative to either collapsing under the weight of uncertainty, or fighting against it. 

Instead, if we accept that we cannot remove uncertainty, then perhaps we can restore trust in the social fabric that holds us together at a team level… creating an “island of sanity” in a sea of chaos and mistrust.

Margaret Wheatley defines an island of sanity as “a place of possibility and refuge, a cohesive community of people who know they cannot survive these violent tsunamis alone, who know that staying together in healthy relationships is the only way to accomplish their good work.”

This paragraph aligns with my own work with Coherent Change Leadership.

“Leaders who create islands of sanity keep people connected to one another and to what matters. They build containers where reflection, inquiry, and sense-making can happen together. They stay present to the humanity of their colleagues and prioritise their own emotional regulation.”

The article brings together insights from Amy Edmondson, Jennifer Garvey Berger, Dr. Margaret Wheatley, and Gianpiero & Jennifer Petriglieri, and the result is a generous, grounded reflection on leadership as connection. Highly recommend Islands Of Sanity: Leading Beyond Psychological Safety 

Over the past few months, I’ve been developing a new coaching offering, Coaching for Coherence. 

Up until now, most of my coaching work has happened through word of mouth. But as I look ahead, this thread of my work keeps calling for more attention. It brings me real joy and satisfaction to work with depth in a one-to-one context.

While every coaching experience is tailored to the individual, the foundations of my practice are based on Coherent Change Leadership: 

• personal coherence - your capacity to inhabit the full human spectrum to make sense of and respond to today's uncertain and complex work environments.
• collective coherence - your capacity to build a collaborative group culture and weave alignment when perspectives are fragmented or polarised.
• contextual coherence - your capacity to meet and work with the reality of your current organisational context, adapting how you operate, lead, and decide.

I’ll be announcing it soon so stay tuned for more information or get in touch if you think you might be interested.