Michael Schluter and John Ashcroft write from Cambridge, UK. They are the Founder (Michael) and current Director (John) of the Relationships Foundation; Michael is also currently Chairman of Relational Research and CEO of Relational Peacebuilding Initiatives. Between them they have authored and co-authored numerous books on the significance of relationships, including being two of the four co-authors of the seminal The Relational Lens.
Just as relationships are fundamental to every aspect of life, so time is of fundamental importance for those relationships, because time is the currency of relationships. This importance stands out in four areas in particular.
1. Personal and community well-being
Happiness and well-being are rooted in relationships. At a personal level, identity, security, self-worth, and belonging all depend on a personal network of relationships. Strong relationships and social support have been shown to increase life expectancy, to reduce the risks of contracting some illnesses, and to speed recovery rates.
The strength of a relationship, and the benefits it affords, are both related to time. Loneliness and isolation are increased by the lack of time of those who might otherwise provide support. Trust and security deepen in the course of a prolonged positive experience of a relationship. Love and care take time to express practically. The welfare of children really does depend on the quantity — not just the quality — of time devoted to the relationship by their key carers.
In considering the importance of time for such relationships we need to consider both the amount and the availability of time spent on any given relationship, as well as the duration of the relationship. Time availability when it is requested by those in need of care and support is not the same as time availability when it is convenient to give it.
2. Public services
The real ‘value’ of public services lies in the front line interactions between professionals and end users that are set in the context of service relationships. The richer the definition of outcomes that are sought, the more importance is placed on the time involved in such interactions. A prescription can be written quickly; addressing the causes of depression takes more time. Truly caring for an elderly person will take more time than simply helping with washing and dressing though the degree of care expressed in any moment can also vary widely. Developing character in pupils will take more time than merely transmitting knowledge.
The effectiveness of public services also depends on a wide network of supporting relationships with other professions and agencies. These also require time, with weaknesses in these relationships causing time-consuming friction.
Front line practitioners report high levels of time pressure. This may be due to the volume of demand (e.g. more young offenders requiring support), the complex and thus time-consuming nature of demand (e.g. more children with behavioural problems in school), or the time costs of accountability processes (e.g. the need to document and collate ‘evidence’ of performance and competence) or organisational change. High levels of mobility (e.g. schools with very high annual turnover of pupils) and staff turnover also put pressure on time, because new relationships take time to build up.
3. Business and other organisations
The distinctive quality of relationships with each of the major stakeholders needs to be recognised as the key to competitive advantage. Time is a major cost factor in many industries/service sectors. This poses the personal and organisational challenge of how to prioritise the investment of time in relationships and monitor the consequent costs and benefits of these decisions. The financial implications of decisions are often assessed more accurately and thoroughly than the impact on people’s time and the relational consequences of this. The extent to which time is diverted from core purposes by external factors or the decisions of other people within the organisation is also not fully recognised.
The implications of meeting the demands of additional relationships can all too easily be fudged. Focusing on the time implications can clarify the relational issues and choices. Given that time in relationships is both a cost and an opportunity, a key concern for any organisation should be to increase the relational value of each unit of time that is used.
4. Public policy
Time use could potentially be as important as finance (money use) in the politics of Western economies, where time poverty can have as significant consequences for relationships and wellbeing as cash poverty (or be a contributor to cash poverty). Key time issues in politics would include policy on planning and transport (and commuting time), working hours, and the time and relational costs of inappropriate target cultures and regulatory burdens.
Having looked briefly here at some of the reasons why relationists should be concerned about time, future posts will look in more detail at the interaction between time and relationships, and at how a relational understanding needs to qualify a purely economic approach to time.
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