I am just trying to get caught up!<\/strong>\u00a0 How often have we used this phrase ourselves?\u00a0 A few weeks ago, while landing a significant proposal with the President of our College, the President looked at me and said, \u201cI appreciate your innovative thinking.\u201d\u00a0 He then went on to express his frustration with the busyness of the organization and the lack of innovative creative ideas which are being brought to his desk.\u00a0 Good for me, not good for our organization.\u00a0 What is it about getting caught up, which ties us down and restrains our greater potential from being released?\u00a0 The proposal was approved, yet, if not careful the very futuristic vision which brings hope and energy to my soul may simply get consumed by the everyday demands of simply keeping up.<\/p>\n This past week while reading Consider: Harnessing the Power of Reflective Thinking In Your Organization by Daniel Patrick Forrester I was struck by the concept of, “One Day Without Email.”<\/strong>\u00a0 Specifically how Scott Dockter, a CEO of a 30 year old family business decided to implement “no email Friday”<\/strong> within his organization due to the demands of employees always feeling the need to catch up.\u00a0 While reading Scott\u2019s case study, three key areas began to emerge as to the effects of never stepping out of, \u201cthe get caught up syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n Three Diminishing Factors<\/strong><\/p>\n Our Souls\u2026<\/strong> When consumed by getting caught up, we are often driven by fear.\u00a0 The what if\u2026\u00a0 What if I don\u2019t respond to this person\u2019s need, what if this person thinks poorly of me, what if my delayed response?\u00a0 You can fill in the blank.\u00a0 Being driven by the \u201cwhat if\u201d, is exhausting.\u00a0 Our best energy is often given to others demands which have no connection to the greater vision of how God wants to use you within your organization.\u00a0 Often in this drain our souls become tired, weary and functioning from a position which is less than human.<\/p>\n Our Reflective Thinking\u2026<\/strong> Getter done!\u00a0 Check it off!\u00a0 Let\u2019s rock and roll! Each of these statements reflect a hyper production mode in which human potential may be limited through the shear amounts of tasks which need to be accomplished.\u00a0 Once volume overtakes quality, the space for creativity and reflective engineering is no longer possible.\u00a0 Reflective thinking and creative potential gives way for the quick fix.\u00a0 Organizations trapped in trying to get caught up, hire quick fix leaders.\u00a0 According to Edwin H. Friedman in his book, Failure of Nerve, these leaders often demonstrate immaturity and a lack of deep reflective thinking.<\/p>\n Our Creativity\u2026<\/strong> Getting caught up is almost never creative.\u00a0 Creativity takes time.\u00a0 Space needs to be provided.\u00a0 To be creative, means to dream.\u00a0 Dreaming takes time. \u00a0Yet, the emails are calling.\u00a0 And after a three hour session of trying to bang out a couple hundred emails, we often feel numb, not creative.\u00a0 Creativity takes space.\u00a0 Our organizations need time.\u00a0 Time to rest.\u00a0 Time to think.\u00a0 Time to create.\u00a0 Once we free ourselves from the \u201cwhat if\u201d fear, we actually free ourselves up to be more creative and productive.<\/p>\n After an initial detox time for Scott Dockter\u2019s employees, the organization found it\u2019s people healthier, less email traffic being needed, employees who knew each other deeper and an overall hope in the general employees.<\/p>\n How much have you been working at getting caught up?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As we feel ourselves going under, drowning in the impossible multiplication of activities, responsibilities, relationships, and requirements, we end up all but abandoning the pursuit of happiness.\u00a0 Our new goal isn\u2019t so much gentle, authentic happiness, nor are we apparently seeking joy, ease, pleasure or delight.\u00a0 Instead, when I ask people how they are, what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,105],"class_list":["post-262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-forrester","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1583,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions\/1583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/31.media.tumblr.com\/fa288bbea087e2974611587d9dc2f8d7\/tumblr_inline_n1zy1q3siN1rvyiy6.jpg\")
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