Slow, to Change

One of the great miracles of life is our ability to change.

“Habits are human nature, so why not create some that will mint gold.” - Hafiz

So, as remote work impacts our personal lives and team dynamics, it’s helpful to know that we’re not powerless.

Change can be difficult, but not changing can be even more so.

One often overlooked factor in change is slowing down.

Slowing down allows for our conscious re-tooling of behavior, thought, and speech. 

Any conscious behavior change requires slowing down and doing the new routine with precision awareness. 

New unconscious behaviors don’t require much slowing down. The person who slowed down is the one who took all the time to design the behavior that would snag us. An addictive app, a catchy song, a binge-able show, all these required a lot of thoughtful design and production. The slowing down happened, but it happened before we were in the loop.

When we aspire to cultivate new habits and behaviors, we typically have to slow down to evaluate what we really want and how to achieve it. Folks like B.J. Fogg and James Clear have extensively researched and taught the models and approaches to help get us there.

“The essence of Tiny Habits is this: Take a behavior you want, make it tiny, find where it fits naturally in your life, and nurture its growth.” - Fogg

To get started, we plant the seed in our psyches that we want to change and are willing to slow down to achieve it. Next, we read a short article and pick one small change to start with. And then we ask ourselves, what do I get by not pursuing this change? What might I get if I did pursue this change? 

This is just as true of group dynamics.

We develop habits as teams. Some good. Some painfully unhelpful.

“Some structures and processes are formal: your team has explicitly agreed on them. Others are informal; they have developed without discussion. In either case, the structures and processes exist only as long as the team keeps repeating the behaviors that embody them. Stop those behaviors and the structures and processes disappear.” - Roger Schwarz

Fortunately, like most human behavior, we have the capacity to change our team dynamics. Of course, to do so requires slowing down.

To get started, someone schedules a meeting to discuss the question: What would make being on this team more valuable, rewarding, and meaningful? (Note: Money can’t be one of the answers.) Then, the team prioritizes the options and picks one or two to start with. To implement, consider trying B.J. Fogg approach applied to each team member.

Change in ourselves and on our teams is totally possible. It just takes a little slowing down.

“The central tenet of the slow philosophy is taking the time to do things properly, and thereby enjoy them more.” — Carl Honoré

So, slow down, change, and enjoy the results of meaningful, positive transformation!