The Way We're Working Isn't Working
Arianna Huffington

The World is Changing, Are You?

From Wall Street, to the lagging economy, to Greece and the "euro zone," to our broken regulatory system, to the high-speed computer trading system that might have played a role in the recent stock market mini-meltdown, to those two wars we're still in a decade later, it's clear that something is wrong.

It's not that our political leaders and economic chieftains aren't, for the most part, smart people -- it's that they're making their decisions without judgment or wisdom. And when so many smart people end up making so many mistakes, clearly the way we're working isn't working.

Figuring out why this is so -- and what we can do about it -- is the animating idea behind "The Way We're Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance," a terrific new book by Tony Schwartz, Jean Gomes and Catherine McCarthy.

In a nutshell, the book's thesis is that a myth has taken hold that "human beings operate most productively in the same one-dimensional way computers do: continuously, at high speeds, for long periods of time, running multiple programs at the same time." This has led to a world in which:

"The defining ethic in the modern workplace is more, bigger, faster. . . . The relentless urgency that characterizes most corporate cultures undermines creativity, quality, engagement, thoughtful deliberation, and, ultimately, performance."

Thus, "when we fuel ourselves on a diet that lacks essential nutrients, it shouldn't be a surprise that we end up undernourished and unable to operate consistently at our best."

Yet, according to Schwartz, Gomes and McCarthy, the most basic human survival need is to renew our energy. We're great at spending it, not so great at renewing it. The costs are "less capacity for focused attention, less time for any given task and less opportunity to think reflectively and long term." The inevitable result: diminished judgment and wisdom -- and a world on the brink of collapse. "More and more," writes Schwartz, "paradoxically, leads to less and less."

Schwartz has broken down the book into the four energy needs that he has identified as those we all require to live productive, meaningful, and happy lives. They are:

-- Sustainability (the physical).

-- Security (the emotional).

-- Self-expression (the mental).

-- Significance (the spiritual).

Schwartz tackles each one and, in doing so, provides a roadmap for how to take back control of our lives from our faster-better-more-techno-merry-go-round culture. As he writes, as opposed to trying to mimic the way computers operate, "a growing body of research suggests that we're most productive when we move between periods of high focus and intermittent rest." And yet, instead, "we live in a gray zone" -- unsatisfied, unproductive, unfulfilled.

Schwartz even has an entire chapter on my favorite lifestyle topic these days: sleep. He examines the role lack of sleep has played in disasters like the Exxon Valdez spill, the Challenger space shuttle explosion and the Three Mile Island meltdown. "No single behavior more fundamentally influences our effectiveness in waking life than sleep," writes Schwartz. "Sleep may well be more critical to our well being than diet, exercise and even heredity."

And yet the average American gets only 6.5 hours of sleep a night. Schwartz also cites a famous 1993 study by Anders Ericsson in which the habits of three levels of violin students were studied. What Ericsson found -- and what most people who cite the study focused on -- was how much more the students at the top level practiced than the bottom level. But what intrigued Schwartz was the fact that the top level students also slept more, napped more in the day, and were much more disciplined about giving themselves down time and creating rituals to renew their energy. In other words, "periods of high focus and intermittent rest."

As Schwartz writes:

"Asking ourselves who we want to be and how we want to behave -- resisting the default into denial and self-deception -- is the key to growing, learning and evolving. . . . It means recognizing that as addicted as we can become to the speed and intensity of our lives, we're more creative and productive when we move intentionally between effort and renewal, action and reflection."

It seems like President Obama is on the same page. In a recent commencement speech at Hampton College in Virginia, he told the assembled graduates:

"You're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter. And with iPods and iPads, and Xboxes and PlayStations -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it's putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy."

As Schwartz says at the end of his book: "The world is changing. Are you?"

Available at Amazon.com:

The Way We're Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance

Toxic Talk: How the Radical Right Has Poisoned America's Airwaves

The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics

Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks

The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House

Read the latest political news.