What is Efficiency Costing Us?

Welcome to New York City – the land of efficiency. New Yorkers can accomplish more in a minute than most people can in an hour. We’ve got three speeds: fast, faster and fastest. But while our time is money, are we paying an even bigger price for our fast-paced lifestyle?

Our work has become increasingly – if not completely – virtual. Laptops enable us to work anywhere, email saves us from time consuming phone calls, LinkedIn let’s us build our networks with the click of a button.

Having a screen between us and the world makes things faster, cleaner, and, often, less awkward. But something is missing – humanity.

Our communication has become hyper-transactional both personally and professionally. People don’t even have to respond to a text message anymore – they can “like” it!

We’re trading in the messy human interactions that interconnect us for convenience and social safety.

Technology saves us from fumbling over our words, accidentally talking over each other on the phone, and not knowing the right answer. But it also creates digital personas that will never capture the true essence of our personalities.

Making a phone call, attending events, and meeting for coffee are all considerably more time consuming than their virtual alternatives. However, they often offer a bigger bang-for-your-buck. A conversation is more memorable than an email, finding someone you “click” with at an event is more exciting than a LinkedIn invitation, and an intimate conversation over coffee can upgrade someone from colleague to friend.

Our goal to ‘get more done’ may not even be moving the needle of our success. Ultimately, it’s not white papers or tweets that make things change – it’s people. By having a network of real, live people who you can tap into, you will have the ultimate power of efficiency: influence.