The Long Now Foundation is dedicated to changing the way we think about time. In the modern workplace, the focus is on moving fast. “Velocity” is a buzzword that evokes the idea of success through immediate action. This thinking is at the core of optimizing, post-mortems, growth-hacking and 10x-ing. As the search for disruption around every corner is the mantra of the day, it’s easy to forget long-term thinking. The cost of neglecting long-term thinking is that many big and complex challenges are not tackled effectively.

Enter the Long Now Foundation, whose goal is to change this and stimulate a longer-term perspective. One of their more publicly known works is the building of a $42m clock that will keep accurate time for 10,000 years. While the clock appears to be a gigantic mechanic masterpiece with thousands of gears, housed in a Texas mountain cave with a chime that rings once every 100 years, in reality it is a symbol of doing things better and more slowly.

It’s an engineering marvel. It’s the shift in the questions that makes it interesting. It brings up questions such as: What’s the timeline of our considerations and of our actions? What timeframe do we care about? How would we do things if we were certain they would last? What problems would we work on if we knew we could have real impact? Would we devote our energy to the same things we do now or to something different, something more ambitious?

Take the next step

Here are some questions for the week: What timeframe are you thinking of as you are leading your teams? Would considering different timeframes make a difference in the way you lead? If a lot of your effort is focused on ‘getting through the day/week/month’, how can you change this perspective? What is the cost you’re paying for not doing this? What is the benefit you could realize from considering both?

Dig deeper

Want to know more about the $42m, 10,000-year clock? Here it is.