Think again about “Dunk in the Dark.” Racing to deliver a message within a time window that’s unexpectedly opened up in the course of a football game based on split-second clock management? Totally monochronic, dude.
Pursuing calendar time on a truly vast scale, consider brands’ scramble to keep ahead of the news cycle in March 2020, when COVID-19 upended workplaces, social interactions, supply chains and our own sense of body autonomy. This was a crucial cultural moment, and nobody wanted to be late to weigh in with their own proof of currency.
While plenty of companies had important things to say about how they were responding to pandemic conditions with changes to their goods and services, a lot of companies didn’t have much to offer besides messages of sympathy. Messaging that started, “In these uncertain times … “ soon became shorthand for a company clumsily trying to stay abreast of current events.
So are monochronic communications a bad idea? Not at all — it’s still the defining paradigm for Western cultures, and your audience is going to expect you to deliver the right message at the right time.
But by the same token, your audience is going to penalize you for delivering the wrong message at the wrong moment. Don’t let the clock compel you to say something you needn’t or shouldn’t.
Event time (polychronic). Here’s another way to think about time, one that dominates many other cultures outside the West.
While monochronic time depends on linear measurement, polychronic time is defined by personal interactions — frequently several at once. Instead of judging the use of time in terms of quantity, polychronic cultures prioritize the quality of time engaged in — and defined by — social obligations.
Communicating in event time isn’t a zero-sum game. It’s a dance in an elastic space that can stretch to accommodate many partners. Some interactions will be fleeting, others will take a long time to develop. There’s no particular rush as long as your audience gets what they want from the interaction.
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