Working La Vida Loca: A Personal Interview with Jeff Conley
By Cinda Daly

Today, you can go from a billion-dollar industry titan to bankruptcy in less that one quarter. It took the PC 16 years to reach 25% of U.S. households; the Web browser did the same thing in 2 years. Simply put, money and information move faster. And, in the race to embrace greater speed, we've experienced a slow surrender of our spirit. There must be room for both speed and spirit. It's time to recognize that we all have hungers of the heart that have nothing to do with money, and failing to feed these hungers starves the spirit.

That's just a sneak peek at Jeff Conley's message. Part Tom Peters, part Jonathan Winters, Jeff has a turbo charged sense of humor and a unique perspective that changes the way people think. Get set for more of these life zinger's, wrapped up in a funny and invigorating opening keynote presentation at CSM 2002, "Working La Vida Loca." 

Daly. You have such a positive and optimistic view of our world. Yet, you begin with such a sullen thought.

Conley. In one regard, yes. The workplace is more difficult today. Lead times in business are shrinking. The 90-day turnaround has replaced the five-year plan. Waiting for the microwave to heat up lunch at the office feels like an eternity. Seasons of intensity come with every job, but technology has turned seasons of intensity into endless intensity. This tidal wave of technology is sweeping over all of us, and we are caught in its current. I help people recognize that while we are in demanding times, there is much we can laugh at while we adjust to "Working La Vida Loca"--working the crazy life.

Daly. How pervasive has this "slow surrender of our spirit" become?

Conley. It's very insidious, and it's not even on our radar screen. It slowly sneaks up on us because we are on this race for speed. What has happened is that technology has tethered us--spilling over into our dens and bedrooms. Having phones and pagers that can reach us any time, anywhere is not good enough. We need direct connect. Paying at the pump isn't fast enough; we need speed passes. This is insidious in terms of behavior--we adopt the habit of wearing technology and responding to it wherever we are. We have adjusted to greater speed, but we haven't stopped to consider the impact on our spirit.

It's not the technology--it's the mentality of racing to embrace more. Speed and technology are here to stay. Yet many suffer from speed fatigue. It is that race to embrace greater speed that we have that slow surrender of spirit.

Daly. What a great phrase, speed fatigue. What are some signs of speed fatigue?

Conley. When you can't rest without being restless. When time poverty is your status symbol. When your eight to five is going 24/7. Speed is everywhere because it costs nothing anymore. In 1980, one megahertz. of computing speed cost over $5,000. Today it's twelve cents. Speed alone leads to speed fatigue. Speed without spirit makes us feel like we're running around at the speed of light, but we're in the dark as why we feel this way.

Daly. Some people just like a fast pace. . . . . .

Conley. While engines were made to run fast, they weren't made to idle at the red line. Hard work is a virtue, but constant overwork is a toxic habit. The thirst for speed is unquenchable. But, people have forgotten how to amble, just stroll. Everyone is consumed by a sense of purpose in everything they do. Aristotle couldn't make it today. He was too much of thinker. We're focused on being "doers." Now, there's nothing wrong with that. But, there comes a time when you have to embrace the natural rhythms of life. Technology is an unnatural force, it's a great force, but it's an unnatural one. Our spirits are starving for some of those rhythms of renewal. My book, Habits of the Heart, is based upon this principle and offers strategies for finding these natural rhythms in our lives.

Daly. So why are we in the dark?

Conley. We've become so consumed in our calling, so work dominant, we get up at 3:00 am to answer email across the globe. We haven't taken the time to stop and think because we have so much to do. This constant sense of urgency without a sense of purpose starves the spirit. These crazy days of working la vida loca require that we run faster and faster and faster. We're always in a time crunch, and everything we do is time compressed. We're working harder and harder planning to get more time later in life. The problem is that life doesn't always work out as planned. Time can't be leveraged or grown. While that mentality works with money, it doesn't work with time. The only time we have is now.

When you get on that blinding track, you don't understand what's really going on and the ripple effects--emotionally, physically, and psychologically--are devastating. Far too many of us are professionally successful, yet privately empty. We get caught up in what I call the ethics of economics when we start doing things that we don't really believe in just to keep the paycheck coming. No one wakes up in the morning to be this way; we just slowly slide into it.

Recently after I talked about these things at one company, the 52 year old CEO came up to me and said, "Jeff, I have it all, but my kids won't return my phone calls." That's the great inequity. While we're building personal and shareholder wealth and creating the greatest new technology and building a better world, we've slowly surrendered our spirit. No business success is worth the cost of family failure. There is a path we can walk that allows us to feed these hungers of the heart without losing our edge professionally. In fact, walking this path of both speed and spirit makes us better at both work and home.

Daly. Since the events of September 11, people are weighing the consequences and thinking about their priorities.

Conley. We are thinking about it, but we don't know how to make the change. We need a strategy that is simple, a system that will help us walk that path of speed and spirit.

Daly. What are some strategies for dealing with this fatigue?

Conley. Try the 52/53 strategy. Work 52 hours per week, eight to six. That's plenty of time to get things done. On Friday, the fifth day, at 3:00 p.m., bail out for the weekend. At first this gesture will seem like a death-defying leap, a career-limiting act. Our fear-based work ethic says, "If I put in more time, they won't fire me in the next lay-off." This attitude is self-imposed. Even C-level executives said that 55 hours per week is enough to do anything, as reported in a Fortune magazine survey a few months back. If you have enough confidence to take this stand, before long it is expected behavior. And people will say, "I know you need to leave at 3:00 p.m. today, can we work on this project this morning?"

Daly. Here's another morsel from your library: thinking differently is your only sustainable competitive advantage. What's behind that thought?

Conley. Everybody is busy, and we don't take time to think. So, we need a structure that helps us to think differently. The first thing we have to do is go "E" free. Turn everything off for 15 minutes a day and get away from it. Now that you have 15 minutes to think differently, get a place to think and expect great thoughts to come. Have thought starters, anything that will trigger your thinking from the Wall Street Journal to the comics. Finally, have thought sculptors with you, people you can lean on and trust and who will tell you, "that idea was lame" or "fantastic idea!"

Daly. You're a pretty seriously zany guy. Share one of the moments that shaped your outlook on the world.

Conley. Early in my career, my self-identity was professionally centered. I was named as one of the greatest in the world at what I do and I started thinking I could save every human being in my path. I saw myself enveloped in a red cape. I was "Speaker Man."

Until six years ago, I was totally immersed and absorbed by that image. It gave me great strength at work. But, I became aware that Speaker Man was my only identity. While I was thinking of myself as Speaker Man, my family was waiting for their husband and father to come home. Soon, only thinking of myself as Speaker Man became a liability.

It got to the point that success was based upon the calendar--success was measured in terms of my potential to be Speaker Man 365 times a year. I felt pretty inadequate because I only had 95 dates scheduled. I kept running into people, who do what I do, who had 260 days booked. I have a son, a daughter, and a marriage I wanted to keep whole, so I imposed a limit on my schedule. With 65 bookings I can secure my family. The rest of the time I'm going to be home. My family and I couldn't be happier.

Jeff is also featured in the conference breakout session, "Developing Quality People: A Revolutionary Evolution." Among his many pursuits, Jeff has the day-to-day operational responsibilities of the Jeff Conley Corporation, an employee retention firm coaching his client companies to master the seven elements of becoming, "A Great Place To Work." Jeff is the author of Habits of the Heart, Changeless Leadership for Changing Times, Developing the Difference Maker in You and has co-authored the best selling Profiles of Success.

Cinda Daly, CSM 2002 Program Chair, has over 18 years of experience in technology sales, marketing, support and training. She has written dozens of articles and software reviews for Fortune, Customer Support Management, and Services News, among other industry publications. Contact her at CindaLDaly@cs.com.

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