Time Awareness — Why it is Critical to Business Success
“Time is the school in which we learn, time is the fire in which we burn.”
— Delmore Schwartz (1913–1966) — American poet and short story writer
Time is an invaluable resource, once it is lost it is lost forever.
I still clearly recall my first day of bootcamp in the Israeli Defense Forces. I vividly remember that every exercise would have a timekeeper assigned. Every 10 seconds they would shout out how many seconds were left in that set. This continued for 12 weeks. As I went onto artillery school, I quickly learned that not being constantly aware of the time, even down to the second, could mean the difference between life and death.
In the Marine Corps, the saying goes, “If you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late. If you’re late, you’re f…”
Personally, I consider being late a form of stealing. Forcing others to wait for you robs them of time they can never get back, time they could have used for things important to them. Being punctual shows that you value time and thus would not deprive others of this precious and limited resource.
Time Awareness is a fundamental component of a company’s Execution Capability. Organizations that are not aware of time are bound to be out of sync, meaning the faster they attempt to move, the more painful it will be. To execute Time Awareness flawlessly, it must first be embedded within the company culture.
Lack of Time Awareness creates friction and not being on time translates into a loss of productivity and morale. In the world of instant communication and high-speed competition, it can mean the difference between success and failure.
In Time Aware cultures people respect each other’s time, becoming more productive on both an individual and team level. Deadlines are met and opponents outmaneuvered through speed and agility.
Evidence of a Time Aware culture can be immediately seen. Clocks on the walls of meeting rooms and workspaces is the first sign. Further signs of a Time Aware work environment is a punctual team and meetings that have a designated time keeper.
At Nanoramic Labs, the company I currently run, we take Time Awareness very seriously. Being on time is deeply embedded in all of our rituals and incentives. As a product innovation company, we thrive by bringing fast-to-market disruptive innovations in energy storage technologies. Time Awareness enables us to execute our strategy with intensity and precision.
We prefer meetings of 25 minutes or less, never exceeding 50 minutes. We always begin and end on time. The idea of only having 25 minutes to cover everything on the agenda, makes everyone hyper-aware of how time is being used. This translates into more productivity as it’s less likely discussions stray to irrelevant topics and knowing you have limited time tends to force everyone to listen better.
I discuss how we are building a Time Aware culture in more detail in my article This is How to Build a Time Aware Company Culture and I explain the necessary steps to embed Time Awareness into a company’s Execution Capability in my book 5 to 50 to 500: How to Build and Run Scalable Organizations.
Eric Kish as an author, speaker and practicing CEO. He is the author of 5 to 50 to 500: How to build and run scalable organizations and Everyday Turnaround: The art and science of daily business transformation
