Last week, after a particularly tough day, I was speaking with our head of product. He shared a concept I hadn't heard before, so I wanted to sha

Passive vs Active Time

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2024-11-13 12:00:17

Last week, after a particularly tough day, I was speaking with our head of product. He shared a concept I hadn't heard before, so I wanted to share it with you.

If this is a real thing, let me know, because it blew my mind. You know when you hear a concept for the first time, and it's like zen koan - you instantly become enlightened? This was like that.

If you are a manager, I'm sure you know the feeling. You hit the end of the day, and despite all the meetings, and emails, and follow-ups, it feels like you've done nothing tangible. If someone put a gun to your head, you wouldn't be able to say what you did, even though it all felt important. This is passive time.

Managers live in passive time. Their world is full of meetings, documentation, alignment sessions, and keeping information flowing. Passive time isn’t about getting a direct result at the end of each task. It’s more about spinning plates to keep everything moving. It's about stopping friction, smoothing out noise, and clearing obstacles.

Great managers are the interface between business functions. They take in vast amount of data, and make it digestable to people who need different things.

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