Engaged Learning

Andrew McAfee has a great post on 'busyness'. It seems essential, in the business world, to look busy, even though you may not be. Or, the flip side, to be busy, even when it looks like you are not. For example, when I read my list of blogs/news in the morning, is that effective use of my time? Or am I wasting time, pretending to look busy when actually I am not contributing to the company at all?

At the end of Andrew's post, there is a great example of this paradox found HERE:

Ford once enlisted an efficiency expert to examine the operation of his company. While his report was generally favorable, the man did express reservations about a particular employee.

"It's that man down the corridor," he explained. "Every time I go by his office he's just sitting there with his feet on his desk. He's wasting your money." "That man," Ford replied, "once had an idea that saved us millions of dollars. At the time, I believe his feet were planted right where they are now."

Life is fast, yet according to Steven Covey and his 7 Habits, you must take time to plan and 'sharpen the saw' to be effective. Time doing that actually saves 'Quadrant 1' time, or time spend in crisis & reaction mode. Too often workers must not only be busy but look busy.

Sometimes, being engaged on your individual level, and making the most use of your time, involves doing nothing but thinking, or studying a problem or research or... They may be activities that do not look busy, but can yield dramatic advances to your cause.

Being engaged has little to do with physically doing something than it does mentally. Sometimes those mental actions yield little or no physical action that can be observed by others.

So yes, be busy, but you don't have to look busy. Let other people wonder, then let the results speak for themselves.

Labels: 7 Habits, busyness, engage, Ford