The Beyoncé Theory of Organizational Resilience

I invite you to do a quick exercise: look at your calendar for two weeks from now. Then look at two months from now. Chances are, there are worthwhile activities there.  

Now check your calendar for June 22 or September 14. I’d bet $1 that both days are either empty or filled with useless meetings or those you could totally miss without a problem. 

That’s always the pattern—the near term is busy, but there’s lots of room thereafter. 

Put another way, if you needed a break to restore your energy, it’d always be hard over the next few weeks. But if you planned ahead for those breaks, it’d work out perfectly fine. 

So before the calendar gets full for the year, why not spend 15 minutes—like, today—pre-planning your restorative breaks?

This was on my mind for two reasons. First, the highlight of my 2021 was doing the research sabbatical the last three months of the year. The idea first occurred to me in April. However, it couldn’t start until October because it took six months to clear my calendar of existing projects and obligations. Hence the reminder that if one wants a break, it’s way easier to plan ahead.  

The second reason is that I know several executives who’ve been struggling for some time to find space for a break—either for energy restoration or for finding the next role for themselves. As a result, their energy level is on the ground floor.

When we’ve talked about it, their rationales for not taking a break are completely reasonable. But they are also similar to the near-term/long-term calendar conundrum I mentioned above. 

For example: We have too many things to get done right now. I can’t be away.

A counter would be: If your company has parental leave, it already knows how to handle someone being out for a bit. 

I’m the team leader, so it’s not like someone can just pick up my work.

Tell your boss you’re taking off in 9 months. He’d figure it out. The machine is built to succeed. You’re not that good. Only Steph Curry is. 

I’m the CEO / Executive Director, and there’s no one who can replace me.

How about declaring that you’re going to groom a successor over the next 18 months before taking time off? 

For all of us as leaders, if we’re actually indispensable, if things would fall apart without us, that’s a huge problem. 

What would happen, for example, if Beyoncé asked you to run away with her? Would you say No because your team or organization needs you? Absolutely not. 

The solution is to operate in a way that enables us to give the only reasonable answer to Bey, which regardless of one’s gender identity, sexual orientation, or relationship status is YES. 

Besides, just think how effective an organization would be if everyone trained, empowered, context’d, and system’d their teams to be able to operate when the leader is on a break. Probably pretty darn effective!

Call that the Beyoncé Theory of Organizational Resilience.™

Either way, let’s take breaks!