I have just returned from India after a two-week long family holiday and there is one particular artefact that has captured my attention. The Clock.

The use of the Clocks is very common in the West, but Clocks have never been as popular in the Indian subcontinent. With the exception of metropolitan cities where life is characterised by business and efficiency, clocks were never part of the Indian culture. But these days Clocks are everywhere – in rural India and even in temples.

In the West, Clocks were first introduced to bring discipline and scheduling to prayers somewhere in the 12-13th century by the Benedictine monks. It was in the 16th century when Clocks were mounted on the Church steeples that they took on an energy of their own.

Once the Clock became the God, life became mechanised. Slowly everything was turned into a standard product including art, education, health and creativity. These days even love can be measured and is up for sale.

Humans are creatures of belief, and the power of all belief is that it hardly feels like a belief. Ask anyone do you believe in time, measurement, efficiency and optimisation and they will look at you as if you have a mental illness. Is that even a question to ask? That is what belief systems are capable of doing to us.

So, what’s wrong with being efficient? Nothing except that efficiency in its own makes no sense and it has no meaning. We have reached a stage where everything that is non-measurable is unreal.

And yet, a large part of organisational success comes from deliberately making an attempt to go beyond and sometimes even ignoring efficiency. Talk about building a relationship or a business deal and starting by saying, ‘look I have only 20 minutes to build trust with you.’ How bizarre is that?

I’ve been intrigued by a common expression when I meet with people.

How are you?
Busy, busy! (Not once but twice).

We take pride in being busy, but we don’t know why we are busy and if being busy is really serving our purpose. True it is. Once we believe in the myth of the Clock, we stop thinking.

But have a look at the contrast. How much people adore being away from the Clock.

How was your Christmas?
It was quiet.

It is often those rituals of silence and slowing down that bring us joy, contemplation and a new perspective.

The Greeks came up with a powerful metaphor to distinguish between timelessness and timeliness. They called it the Kairos and the Kronos time. Time is money but Time can also wait. I have a deadline but if I run too fast, it will also impact on my lifeline. All thought it metaphorical and ultimately, it is for us to decide how we give meaning to the Clock in our lives.

I’m not suggesting that we abandon the Clock but maybe we should learn to strike a balance between the Kronos and the Kairos time.

Sometimes, it pays to create rituals of inefficiency in our lives.

Don’t believe me, give it a try.