The Strategic Pause with Juliet Funt

Juliet Funt, the CEO of WhiteSpace at Work, danced onto the stage at the Nordic Business Forum. With a charming smile, she began her talk speed talking, in one breath, her way through a typical work day at the office from waking up, brushing your teeth, trying to decide on what to eat, to the tasks, meetings, emails, and conversations with colleagues to rushing off for afterschool pickup. The list went on. Funt’s explanation may ring true for most people, especially those of us working in high-stress and high-level business environments.

Often, employees have little time for themselves. Funt asked, “If you just came around the corner, and just discovered them like—” she crossed her arms, staring blankly into space“—would you call a paramedic?” She smiled, as the audience laughed. What

There is often little to no time to think or create anything groundbreaking because we are too focused on everything else. When we focus on all the various small tasks of the day, there is little time to devote to what Funt calls “white space.” If employees have time to think, they have time to innovate.

One of the many services her company provides is to analyze how much time a company’s employees spend on busy work and on being interrupted. Many companies, especially those in the United States, do not let employees detach from their work even during holidays.

How should you improve your employee’s time usage at work? What tools will make your employees more innovative? To answer these questions and find out some good tips, check out the full Executive Summary of Juliet Funt’s presentation here!

Read the Executive Summary