Efficiency.

Spend time in any organization. Talk to any executive leader. You will quickly find they are all striving for efficiency.

“We need to break down the silos, bring everyone to the table, improve our communication to increase efficiency so we can make decisions and move quickly to increase revenues, reduce expenses, and be good stewards of our profits and surpluses.”

Have you ever heard that…or something like it?

Look at the way we manage our family lives too. We’re all striving for efficiency.

“Ok, we can grab dinner on the way, and bring the kid’s PJs so we can change them before heading home and hopefully they fall asleep in the car so bedtime is smoother and we can throw in a load of laundry and do a clean sweep before switching it over before we go to bed.”

Parents?

Don’t deny it.

Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, “Ok, let’s see if we can have the most inefficient day possible.” Don’t get me wrong, chasing efficiency has helped us make incredible technological advances. How many times has a revolutionary new product begun with the simple thought, “There has to be a better way.” That often means, “There has to be a more efficient way.”

And therein lies one of my biggest challenges as a working dad.

I loathe inefficiency, and parenthood is really inefficient. Think about it.

When you have two minutes to get out the door to stay on schedule, is it most efficient to let your kid tie his own shoe?

Is letting your kid wipe himself really efficient…at all….ever?

When it’s bed time, and you’re exhausted, and all of sudden your kid wants you to listen to him tell you all about the different parts of lunch each kid in his class likes best, is that really efficient?

Wouldn’t it be easier to just tie the shoe and get going, to just wipe the butt and be done with it, and to just take care of listening to the lunch stories during drive time after school? I mean, you asked about their days earlier and all you got was an apathetic, “Good.” They had their chance, right?

Not quite.

In his timeless book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen Covey shares that with processes, we should think efficiency, but with people, we should think effectiveness.

How simple, yet how profound.

In my last post, I mentioned that people are more than percentages. Here, I would say, people are more than processes.

I don’t want to sacrifice strong relationships with my kids for efficiency in getting through life now. If he knows I’m willing to listen to his preschool lunch analysis long after bedtime now, then I hope he will know I’m willing to listen to his apprehension about his relationships or his questions about life and faith later. If I say no to the lunch story now for the sake of “efficiency,” will I ever have a chance at the important stuff later?

So, here’s to efficiency at work and inefficiency in parenting. Because sometimes, being inefficient is the most effective thing you can do.

#daddylessons