About this episode

This episode discusses the idea that speed is a byproduct of effective systems rather than a goal, featuring insights from Dawna Ballard on the importance of slowing down communication.

This episode is brought to you by Your Clockwise Week—a personalized weekly structure built around your actual life, not an ideal one. If your week feels full but not fitting, you can learn more at mikevardy.com/yourclockwiseweek . We've built entire systems around moving faster — faster responses, faster workflows, faster outputs. But speed isn't something you pursue. It's something that shows up when you've built something worth moving through quickly. That distinction came up early in this conversation and stayed with me long after we stopped recording. If you've ever felt like you were moving fast but not actually going anywhere, this episode is for you. Dawna Ballard is a professor of organizational communication at the University of Texas at Austin, where she specializes in chronemics — the study of time as it relates to human communication. Her book, Time by Design: How Communicating Slow Allows Us to Go Fast , draws on decades of field research across medical settings, child advocacy networks, and organizations of all kinds to make a case that's both counterintuitive and deeply practical: slowing down your communication is often the fastest thing you can do. Six…

People in this episode

Host: Mike Vardy

Guest: Dawna Ballard

Topics covered

• productivity
• communication
• time management
• organizational communication
• chronemics

Keywords

• speed
• productivity
• communication
• time management
• chronemics
• organizational communication
• Dawna Ballard

Sponsors

Your Clockwise Week

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Texas at Austin

Books & works: Time by Design: How Communicating Slow Allows Us to Go Fast

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