By Ian Ferguson
WHAT is time and why is it important? How does guarding and watching time in the corporate world benefit those in industry?
Our discussion today encourages everyone in the work environment to value and respect time so as to improve how we deliver service and improve the bottom line. Time is a dimension in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future, and also the measure of durations of events and the intervals between them.
We hear often that time waits on no one and that since it is such a precious commodity; one must seize the time and use it wisely.
In the business world, it has been herald that time is money. I believe what those quoting this axiom from Benjamin Franklin are trying to express is that the wastage of time results in missed opportunities which could potentially be economically viable.
This dialogue then encourages those of us in the service environment and The Bahamas at large to value our customers’ time, to respect our employers time and to make important business decisions in a timely fashion. We have long mused and even celebrated on some fronts the colloquial, ‘Bahamian Time’ expression. We seem to get a kick out of saying, ‘one minute please’ and then taking ten minutes to deliver or showing up at 8pm for a 7pm engagement or assignment.
What we have actually done in this seemingly simple act is to communicate distrust and disrespect to the waiting customer. We have said in no uncertain terms, I don’t think enough of you to either operate with a sense of urgency or to reconcile and indicate the time necessary to serve the customer both internal and external. Additionally, there are many in both the private and public sector who fail to honour their work time commitments.
They steal a little here and a lot there during the course of the day. The daily gossip gone wild, the social media chatting and posting all hours of the day, the extended coffee breaks and executive lunch times all take away from the valuable time that workers should be fully engaged in productive assignments.
Even sacred scripture admonishes, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are God’s. Time Matters! Finally, some attention and responsibility must be placed on employers and business executives who also fail to respect time and respond as timely as they ought.
If time is money, then the long delays in purchasing badly needed resources for the smooth functioning of the business, or investing in training and reward programs for the staff or hiring new staff members needed to successfully compliment the team sets the company in a negative financial position. Since we have already shared a famous citation from Benjamin Franklin, we close with this final Franklin quote which simply says, ‘You may delay, but time will not.’
• NB: Ian R. Ferguson is a talent management and organisational development consultant, having worked in both the public and private sector locally and regionally providing interventions and solutions for promoting business and service excellence. He was educated at the College of the Bahamas, the University of the West Indies, St. Johns University and holds a Masters of Science Degree from the University of Miami.
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