There is a scene in the film The Matrix when the bullets heading towards Neo slow down. The visual effect used is called Bullet Time, and allows the audience to ‘walk round’ an event happening in slow-motion, to see it from different angles [see the scene here, rendered in lego!]. I think this notion, and the metaphor of the eye of a storm, beautifully encapsulate what leaders need to be able to do amidst the welter of data flooding them daily in a pressured and pressuring environment.
Leaders are always wishing for more time, and Hiro’s ability to stop time in Heroes might well be their superpower of choice. Many wisdom traditions encourage practices that enable stillness and presence, to ready the person for insight, illumination and discernment. One of my colleagues talks about looking at data with ‘soft eyes,’ and I would add to this the need to find your own way to suspend time while you walk round your data set. If time is indeed relative, perhaps we need to stretch it round our decisions a little more, finding the eye of the storm and sitting there for just a little longer.
