On my way to a Christian Medical & Dental Society conference in New Brunswick this week, I came across an article in enRoute Magazine entitled In Praise of Slowness. The author Carl Honore has recently published a book In Praise of Slow : How a Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed. His basic premise is that we need to slow down in all areas of life, but especially in the area of work. Technology and  a 24 7 'always on' global economy is driving people to overwork and burnout. The idea to slow down and "smell the roses" is a great idea with which I heartily agree. However, something Honore says in his article betrays thinking that could possibly defeat it. He sums up his thesis with these words, "put simply, overwork is bad for business"

Honore may be making the same mistake that many in the faith and work movement make. They think that bringing faith to work will be "good for business." As I have pointed out in my article on Christian Business, there is a problem with that kind of thinking that makes the idea of "slow" or the idea of "faith" serve the interest of business.

While I don't have a problem with something being "good for business" per say. It's just that if this is the principal measure by which we judge it, whether or not it is "good for business", we will find ourselves in trouble.

As Honore finds in his book, our global economy worships at the altar of speed. The problem is that business is often the idol found on this altar.  Idols are never satisfied. It is idolatry that is driving us to work fast, live fast, and die fast. So when we talk about something being good or bad for business we may be betraying idolatrous thinking that will in the end defeat our good intentions.

Another book that addresses a similar subject is  Just Enough : Tools for Creating Success in Your Work and Life: by Laura Nash & Howard Stevenson of the Harvard Business School. Here is a quote that illustrates Nash's idea of finding success in setting limits:

To break out of the iron cage of success stress, you cannot simply go for extreme simplicity or extreme wealth. You have to know what is just enough to set limits. This allows you a reachable win from which to assess your capabilities and have new contexts for your next goal. This incremental growth in accomplishments keeps success on track, close to your core definitions. Rather than go for broke, you can determine how to take the next step, identify what you need to accomplish to get to a sense of enough in each of the four categories, across every realm that is important to your values-family, work, self-expression, your place in your community. (p. 175)

 

So whether it is slowing down or setting limits we need to think about the reason why we are doing this. Is it for success? Is it good for business? Is it all about us? Or are there other "goods" we want to see happen, such as "good for relationship"; "good for family" or "good for faith"?

Rather than doing the same old work in the same old way but more slowly or leisurely or within limits or with a measure of faith, what we need is a completely new way of working. This is a way of working that does not worship idols of material 'goods' such as success or wealth. It is a way of working that honors God, keeps people and pays attention to the impact we have on our environment. It is a way of working that generates relational and spiritual value as well as financial value. It is a way of working that measures its success on a triple bottom line of social, environmental and economic 'goods.'

What we need is a New Way to Work. For more please read my article on this subject at a New Way to Work.