Work/Life Balancing Act

The long-running business dialog about creating, finding and ensuring a work/life balance for ourselves and our colleagues has little to do with how much time is spent at home or in the office. It is more about managing our lives and doing more, not less, of what we find meaningful. The evidence can be found by looking below the surface of what appears to be proof to the contrary.

The proliferation of digital devices and the ease with which each of us is connected appears to tilt the scales toward work. In fact, though, the persistent connection actually gives us more power to connect with those we chose than it allows us to be called upon by anyone with our number. After all, just because the phone rings, beeps, sings, chimes, buzzes or vibrates doesn’t mean it has to be answered. At least not right away.

Of course, each of us has responsibilities that often trump our desire for some downtime. But as the list of those responsibilities grows (on the strength of our success and the loss of others), rather than labor longer, our new digital tools (and toys) have cut the cord that in the past required we be in the office to get anything done. Even as the advertising touts that “anyplace can be your office,” it can also be your “home.” By removing location from the work/life balance equation, we open up a host of new formulae for such equilibrium.

The role model for an ability to exert a bit more control over our own lives can be found in the digital technology that seems to threaten it. Before the digital revolution, a communication -- mostly by phone -- was built on technology that required a continuous connection. What we said to each other was carried in whole, requiring the need to listen, ponder and respond in real-time. As the work load increased, that real-time demand began to eat into the "life" part of the "work-life" equation.

Digital technology makes far more efficient use of its network by breaking what we say, type or shoot with a video cam into smaller packets and reassembling them at the other end. Now communication doesn't have to happen all at once. It can be "time-shifted" and sent to us where we ever we are rather than to the phone or monitor back at the office.

Initially, the urge is to feel overwhelmed -- nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. But, over time, it becomes clear that thinking of your own day as digital (as Frank Perdue used to say, "Parts is parts") and not analog ("You've got to listen how 'cause I'm talking now") is freeing.

I can talk to a colleague as I leave the movies; I can buy my wife a birthday gift when the popular store first opens because I am connected. I can make a sale from the weekend house; I can test drive a new car without missing a new opportunity.

By thinking of my time as mine, by assuming my responsibilities and by managing my digital devices, I can make anytime "work" or "life" time. It is possible, it seems, to have both.

Easier said than done, but worth the effort.

The credibility of books in a digital age

A friend of mine wants to write a book. A book; 50,000 words on one topic, printed in ink on paper and in quantities only guessed at in advance of interest; then shipped through a distribution chain powered by fossil fuels; and arriving “in stores now” a year from now. A book in the digital age? What is he, nuts?

Not so much. Think of these:

...The advent of the internet did more than link people separated by great distance into small communities of interests; it made us more aware of the communities in which we live.

...It did more than assemble profitable markets from the far-flung bits-and-pieces too small to be addressed in the pre-‘net logistics paradigm; it allowed anyone with goods and services to find that market.

...It did more than give individuals the equivalent of a broadcast license; it led broadcasters and media of all types to thinks of themselves and their readers, viewers and listeners as individuals.

...And it did more than provide a way for individuals to be reached with commercial and personal messages; it undercut their effectiveness.

Each of these might seem mutually exclusive pairs, but at the base of each is a shared credibility. No market exists without credibility, no products are sold without credibility, no one hears what anyone says who has no credibility and it is not conferred by a asking for it.

Credibility, even, no, particularly in this digital age, is earned on the basis of a consistent commitment to the truth as you see it. Not a hidebound or unchanged dogma, but a living, breathing point-of-view. It really even need not be the truth (that’s pretty hard to pin down) or even most people’s version of the truth, but it better well be an honest assessment that can find enough market support to become a movement.

And just as our urge for security is embedded in our reptilian mind, credibility is recognized as the product of intellect, study, investment, insight, inspiration and review. In other words: a book. In the digital age, a book is an accelerant to a viral campaign, a platform for public speaking and a talisman that certifies that it is OK to listen whether in person, on a blog or podcast, or cited by another.

The evidence weighs a lot. At a recent seminar devoted to the practice of word-of-mouth-marketing, I came away with six books written on the subject. At a recent meeting devoted to the future of the web, I came away with three books on the subject. At a recent conference devoted to emerging business models, I got four books on the subject. And most of the authors were on hand to continue the discussion.

It is clear that books – devoted to ideas, offering insight to the inscrutable, outlining a step-by-step game plan for personal or business success – are as important today as ever. Even if no one reads them, their spines help stiffen our resolve to make sense of all things digital.