Very often our response is to double down on efficiency.  Indeed this may furnish some answers.  We probably all know people who have had the personal discipline to take measures like limiting all their meetings to 45 minutes instead of an hour, freeing up significant time as a result.  And yet if we are not careful this just increases the tempo without addressing the underlying issue.  In the face of unending demands for more action, greater insight, a bigger vision and extra care, the additional space such efficiencies create for a leader risks being eaten up by more work.  If we are not careful we can end up doing even more, but at the cost of working at a more and more breathless pace.

I remember this being particularly acute during the pandemic, when so many of us were on Zoom or Team meetings for hours at a stretch, and days or weeks at a time.  This was heroic work, and so helpful to so many.  Yet my coachees were often exhausted and looking for sources of water in what felt to many of them like a desert.  This was an extreme situation to be sure, but as such extremes can do, it taught a more general truth.  I believe it showed us that the pressures are not just about shortage of time but a lack of space.  A working approach which precludes any space for the simple humanity that allows us to notice how others are feeling, rather than just processing them, that allows no room for building deeper connections or for time to reflect, simply does not nourish us, or those around us enough. 

Maybe we could take inspiration on this from great composers and their use of the symphonic form.  There are many variations in such a rich tradition, but in a simple overview is that the first movement of a symphony is usually the liveliest and longest, capturing the audience but it is followed by a much slower movement, which is in turn succeeded by two faster movements.  All four movements usually differ in pace, but these variations have the aim of building a coherent whole in a way that responds best to what humans need to be engaged and informed.  That slower second (or occasionally third) movement is particularly interesting for our purposes.  It developed as an enduring feature because it gives more space to audiences, and to orchestras.  Some find time there to absorb what they have heard in the earlier faster movement, others to learn more through a different treatment of the symphony's core themes, others may just enjoy the variety which keeps them engaged. 

I think this underlines what our intuition probably tells us if we care to consult it, namely that varying the pace, changing the tempo through our work day, is important.  Reflecting on where we need to leave more space, as well as how we can pack more content into our day, is not a luxury but a requirement if we are to be at our most effective and impactful.  Those of us who are not musicians may not quite know exactly how to label each of our meetings, whether they should be allegro or adagio.  But we would do well to develop their skill of varying the desired pace for the movements of our daily symphony, and conduct ourselves accordingly.