Just Wondering
04.27.2005 | Chris Bailey[Note: I've had this in draft form for a couple of days...I figure it's time to just go ahead and share it.]
Is there a more powerful word in the English dictionary than WONDER? I just returned from a long hike through the trails that surround my neighborhood and I found myself walking with a sense of wonder. Wonder is like super-charged curiosity. It’s deeper and more poetic in what it unleashes.
Just start a sentence with "I wonder about…" and see where it takes you. I started looking at the clouds and finding all different types of formations. Interestingly enough, many of the clouds were looking like insects: a praying mantis, a couple of bees, maybe a large beetle with pointy jaws. Rather than thinking, "That’s weird," I had far more fun asking, "I wonder why?"
The act of wondering isn’t just something you can do while meandering through a forest path or sitting on a beach; it has a beneficial purpose in our workplaces. However, there needs to be a conducive climate for wondering to fully occur. If your workplace is buzzing with speed and franticness, then there’s little fertile ground to start. Wondering is an organizational skill that can be developed when we’re given the chance to slow down and see the bigger patterns. If you’re saying, "But Chris, I can’t slow down, there’s just too much to do and too little time," begin to wonder about the quality of your output. Are you just going from task-to-task? Are you accomplishing what’s really important to you and your work?
If you are in a go-go-go workplace that prides itself on high levels of action, it may take some courage to introduce reflective wondering. To an untrained eye, you might look lazy, uncommitted, and unproductive (three killer words that can be leveled at employees). On the contrary, you might notice that after allowing reflection and wondering into your daily routine, your productivity will actually rise. Have fun!
4 Responses to “Just Wondering”
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Ahhhh! The art of day-dreaming! One of my favourite pastimes. When I think of ‘wonder’ I think of amazement, curiousity and mystery.
Cyn’s grade 3 report card:
“A very good student BUT tends to daydream too much.” (if it wasn’t for my daydreaming I doubt I would have made it through to grade 12, let alone university.)
Thanks for the WONDERful post Christopher!
I’m inspired, as usual, by your ideas, Chris – this time about dreaming and how we might be able to translate dreaming into productivity at work. It seems that so often we’re just stuck in that place where we’re living our lives with our heads down – focused on some far-out-there goal (that old “nose to the grindstone” story), while in the meantime the real world in all its beauty and glory is happening all around us. If we could just pull our heads out of the goal for a few minutes and look up, we might see all kinds of things that elude our focused gaze.
Thanks for the reminder, Chris!
Thank you, Chris. Now we just need to figure out how to implement this. I think it’s all important, but we in go-go-go mode all the time. Thanks for reminding me.
Cyn, isn’t it a shame that daydreaming gets such a bad rap? It’s disturbing that we’ve become so focused on squeezing performance and efficiencies out of our kids, that our schools (at least in the U.S.) drop recess and gym class. Even playdates are structured. Thanks for being an inspiration for what daydreaming can do in our lives.
Jodee, the old “nose-to-the-grindstone” way of working did just fine when we were in an industrial economy. Now, we’re in a much different type of economy (post-industrial, service, whatever we choose to call it). Most organizations’ understanding of the types of skills needed still hark back to that earlier time. Fortunately, I think we’re starting to get it with the recent increased focus on bringing a right-brained artist’s mentality to our work.
Robin, I think it depends on how you look at it. It can be kind of like driving a car at 100 mph and hitting the brakes all of a sudden. Lot’s of not very good things can happen (remember to wear your safety belt if you try this). Or, we can take the foot off the accelerator and gradually brake. What I’m suggesting is that it might take time and small steps in order to make time for reflection and wondering.