Both business agenda and technology agenda are obsessed by time. Time to market, just-in-time, cycle time, webtime. Frequency, speed, acceleration. Time has become the most precious resource, and we are intolerant of journey time, waiting time and idle time.

1. T
I
M
E
I was your
slave,
Now you are
mine,
I am Time. Incredible String Band

2. On the slavery of time
• Over the past thousand years,
our notions of time have been
radically transformed.
Mechanical clocks were
invented around 1000 CE.
Monasteries used the clock to
control work and prayer. Early
factories took over the clock-
based work ethic. Clocks are
now everywhere.
• Both the business agenda and
the technology agenda are
obsessed by time. Time to
market, just-in-time, cycle time,
webtime. Frequency, speed,
acceleration. Time has become
the most precious resource,
and we are intolerant of
journey time, waiting time and
idle time.

4. On the logic of hesitation …

5. Two-Player Game
• I have three disks
• I put one disk on
each player’s back.
• How long does it
take to work out
the colour of the
disk on your back?

6. If I had a black
disk, he would
not hesitate to
conclude that he
had a white disk.
It would be easy
if he had a black
disk, because
then it would be
obvious I had a
white disk.
… therefore I
must have a
white disk.
Instant of Seeing Time for Understanding
Moment to Conclude

7. Lacan’s theory of
time
Instant of Seeing Time for Understanding
Moment to Conclude
Delay, doubt, hesitation,
procrastination, the ability to
make nothing happen
(ungeschehenmachen) - these
characteristic features of
decision-making are grounded by
Lacan in the phenomenology of
obsessional neurosis.

8. Three-Player Game
• I now have five disks
for three players
• How long
does it take
this time?

9. Decision-Making
and Complexity
Instant of Seeing Time for Understanding
Moment to Conclude
So-called real-time decision-
making assumes we can go
straight from instant-of-seeing
to moment-to-conclude.
But complex sense-making
and decision-making require
time-for-understanding.

10. Microsoft Example
Instant of Seeing
Moment to Conclude
“Perhaps you have already seen memos from
me or others here about the importance of
the Internet. I have gone through several
stages of increasing my view of its
importance.”
“Exponential
improvements in
communications
networks … the
Internet is at the
forefront of this”
“Now I assign the Internet
the highest level of
importance.”
Bill Gates “Tidal Wave” May 1995
Time for Understanding

11. So what is the speed of thought?

12. Conclusion
• People and
Organizations need
Time for
Understanding.
• This is known as
Appreciation
(Vickers) or Sense-
Making (Weick).
• And is a critical
component of my
framework for
Organizational
Intelligence.
• Intelligence is
required to escape
the slavery of time.

13. Notes
• John Forrester, The
Seductions of Psychoanalysis:
Freud, Lacan and Derrida
(Cambridge 1990), Chapter 8.
The prisoner story can be
found on p178 ff.
• Richard Veryard,
Organizational Intelligence
Primer (LeanPub 2003)
http://leanpub.com/orgintelligence
Slidedeck updated Feb 2016 to include “Leadership Lessons” from Davos.