Twenty-first century business executives, managers and professionals are under significant and constant pressure to deliver. Information and communication technology – particularly email – designed to supposedly enhance communication and efficiency is in reality having the opposite effect. One finds that people are overloaded with information which seductively leads to longer working hours in order to clear and respond to emails. Personally I find that the boundaries between my work- and home life have all but disappeared because of the unrelenting e-overload and expectations of rapid response.

I am acutely aware of the need to engage with my team and colleagues more closely, but so many competing ‘urgent’ demands upon my time and energy results in the tendency that this engagement is put on the backburner – remaining something to get around to. The question beckons: “Are we increasingly dominated by the myth of urgency, often to the point where the really fundamental and critical issues are simply ignored or put on hold indefinitely?” I tend to think that the dangerous myth is that the ‘put on hold’ is ‘only temporary’. I would argue that, too often, it turns out to be permanent…