You could learn a lot from a dog

Gene Mage

While much has been written on the topic of work/life balance, precious little has made its way into the actual daily lives of today’s working people. Though good intentions abound about working reasonable hours, taking that exercise class, and relaxing with friends, the relentless pressure to perform at work overwhelms those noble urges. With the downsizing sword of Damocles dangling perilously above every desk, every employee wants to be seen as a hard worker, indispensable to the organization.

My toy poodle Holly does not have that problem. Unlike us humans who work ourselves into oblivion, dogs are amazing self-regulating. Holly adjusts her schedule of activities to the demands of the day while keeping in balance. As I watch her going about her business, I wonder whether we might live more productive, healthy lives if we were to flow a little bit more like a dog.

Here are some lessons for your consideration:

Stay cool. During these hot summer “dog days” of August Holly finds ways to keep herself cool. Her favorite technique for keeping her body temperature down is to find the coldest slab of tile or wood floor in the house, and spread herself out, maximizing the surface area in contact with her body.

One of the real challenges at work today is managing our emotions. In the old days, people used to call each other on the phone, or walk down the hall and talk “live” when there was a problem. Today, the temptation is all too great to dash off a hasty flaming e-mail. Inter-office conflicts escalate as senders and receivers compound misunderstandings into major blow-ups.

Instead, why not learn to stay cool? Find the coolest place in the office. I’m not talking about temperature, but emotional temperature. Visit with a cool minded friend who is not emotionally invested in your conflict. Spread out and absorb that coolness. Get their objective advice, take time to think, and then deal with the problem with poise and professionalism.
Work with passion. While Holly does not really have a vocation, she does have some daily activities that fulfill her God-given purpose in life. She keeps watch over the house and grounds for intruders. She offers comfort and companionship to the family. And she patrols the yard relentlessly for woodchucks.

When Holly feels like running, she runs with abandon. When she needs to express herself, she barks a message to her dog pals around the neighborhood. You could say she throws herself fully into whatever the situation demands.

Yet how rare it is to find someone in the work world who fully embraces the challenge of the day. Instead we find careful hesitancy. We hear precisely chosen words, over-analyzed plans, and tightly scripted agendas. How refreshing to come across an employee who steps out and takes the risk to get something done with passion and creativity, treating the business as if it was his or her own.
Rest and play. If you visit my house, you will notice that Holly loves nothing more than to find a toy and toss it into the air, catch it, and repeat the process with great delight. She loves to play with reckless abandon.

In this year of corporate scandals and high minded speeches I mourn the loss of the entrepreneurial spark that brought most of into business in the first place. With everybody drowning in a sea of downsizings and 401K losses, the energy and excitement of serving customers and creating new products seems to have fallen by the wayside.

I want to remember why I went into business in the first place. It was about delighting customers. It was about creative expression and meeting unmet needs. It was about having fun and making money. I think that rediscovering those things comes from stepping away from the daily grind. It takes times of play to rekindle the creative flame.

Syndicated columnist Gene C. Mage is President of Soaring Oaks Consulting, Inc. Please e-mail your business questions to gmage@makingitwork.com, or visit www.makingitwork.com for the complete Making it Work archive.