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Book Report: A Minute to Think by Juliet Funt

Samantha Luckett

College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University

OGL 482: Pro-Seminar II

Dr. B

March 30, 2023

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Book Report: A Minute to Think by Juliet Funt

A Minute to Think is about skills, techniques, and strategies for individuals to add white

space to their leadership toolbox to have time to be creative, break the never-ending cycle of

business, and increase the quality of work you or a team produces. Funt describes white space as

“freed time in the day to think, breathe, ponder, plan, and create” (Funt, 2021, pp. 2). Throughout

the book, Funt uses a variety of examples through interviews and personal situations to show the

opportunity and long-term benefits of adding white space. Within this report will be discussions

of my personal review, my reflection of the book, how the book relates to the Organizational

Leadership degree and courses, and how this book resonated with me and how it will impact my

leadership going forward.

Review

I would describe this book between a “self-help” book and a leadership book because it

calls for the reader to make personal reflection of situations, processes, or events to better

understand themselves and make changes where the reader sees necessary. The book is sectioned

into three strategic parts. Part one focuses on identifying the elements in one’s life that can

interfere with white space and why it can easily slip away. Part two guides the reader through

strategies or approaches that will help the reader “gain awareness of the forces tying you to

business, and the mental habits you’ll need to free” (Funt, 2021, pp. 3). Part three harnesses the

reader with tools to utilize at work and in their personal life to improve “workflow, team

communications, meeting, email, company culture, and your life beyond work” (Funt, 2021, pp.

3). Throughout each section, the reader can relate to situations and examples given to their own

life and use the same strategies to combat the negative aspects of each situation. I would

recommend the book to a college or student focused on learning organizational leadership

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because the negative themes and attributes within organizations discussed throughout the book

are common in our society and hinders potential growth and success. The book generally reflects

on organizations but can relate to all areas of life.

Part One: “The Culture of Insatiability”

Part one has two chapters: “The Missing Element” and “The False God of Busyness”. In

“The Missing Element”, Funt initially reflects on her childhood and the difference in experiences

she has when her family goes on a camping trip. She never built a fire prior and did not know

where to begin. In the end she reflects on the space needed between each aspect of the fire for it

to breathe. This reflection was a beautiful metaphor for the work to follow. In today’s world, we

overload on tasks because of internal or external pressures, not allowing ourselves a moment to

breathe, think, or relax. Instead, we add more work and fill whatever time we have with projects,

procedures, or simply scrolling endlessly on our phones. This gives us a false sense of

productivity and instills guilt from the imbalance between our family, career, friends, or hobbies.

This chapter introduces us to “strategic pauses” and allowing ourselves to simply stare at walls

or out a window, go for walks, or pause before we answer a question or situation. Throughout the

pauses we deplete the fillers like podcasts, social media, busywork, etc. In “The False God of

Business”, the chapter reflects on the question, “Did I do enough” and confronts the norms and

cultures we have doomed ourselves to (Funt, 2021, pp. 34). Funt relates this to the pressures of

insatiability, conformity, waste, cost, and efficiency but proceeds to add a metaphor, “brick and

mortar” to combat the behaviors to create stability.

Part Two: “The White Space Way”

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Part two has four chapters: “The Strategic Pause”, “The Thieves of Time”, “The

Simplification Questions”, and “Hallucinated Urgency”. “The Strategic Pause” is the physical

action of creating white space and reflects on the science in the brain accompanied by studies to

accomplish and promote the benefits. Without the pauses, people experience cognitive fatigue

and the difference in taking a break compared to pausing between activities is significant. In the

book, a pause is used to recuperate, reduce, reflect, or construct but most people get stuck on just

recuperating and not experiencing the full benefits (Funt, 2021, pp. 61-62). The chapter later

introduces “The Wedge”, this wedge is similar to a pause but can be shorter in an attempt to

“think, plan, or compose yourself” (Funt, 2021, pp. 66). This chapter also introduces the benefits

a team can share when white space is instilled into an environment. The benefits can be impulse

control, boundaries, radical brevity, introspection, meaning, creative liberty, balance, and ease.

Finding and navigating areas of white space are necessary for prolonged creativity, productivity,

and reduces burn out. “The Thieves of Time” seems to be a self-explanation but Funt brings a

different perspective. Everyone has a specific asset that can be pushed to the extreme, Assets

include activities, information, drive, and excellence we view as assets can quickly turn and

subject us to frenzy, overload, perfectionism, and overdrive if we are not selective with our time

and align values. Funt leaves us with the thought of what our asset is and how can we readdress

the importance and overextension we place ourselves in. In “The Simplification Questions”, Funt

builds on the thieves of time and reflects where things can be delegated to a team or let go of,

where is the line with enough tasks, victories, or knowledge, and what deserves attention.

Overall, we all look for ways to simplify what we complete and fail because everything seems

too important but reflecting on what matters to the goal allowed Steve Jobs to eliminate “the

Tuna or the Krill, Jane Goodall to find her passion working with the apes, and Funt’s father to
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create the basis of reality television. “Hallucinated Urgency” reflects a culture shift where

everything is urgent whether it is truly urgent or not. Funt reflects on working with a group of

emergency room nurses who truly know the difference between life-and- death urgency but

determines the need for strategic pauses anyway. Creating cultures or subcultures within

organizations without the development of false urgency allows a team to work more efficiently

and almost more importantly, they do not experience the existential dread of constant fight or

flight mode. I struggle with the sense of urgency and that everything I have going on must have

my absolute attention all the time. This feeling creates pits and faulters within my work as task-

switching occurs and details can be overlooked. The chapter goes on to explain how white space

and lack of urgency empowers executive presence Executive presence brings a sense of calm,

thoughtfulness, care, and poise to a group. Within leadership, maintaining and living the

perception is an important trait to deliver to a team. Finally, the chapter ends with the important

but taken for granted use of personal time off and vacation. Vacation time is critical for any

individual because it gives the largest pause possible but also builds trust and creativity within

the individual and organization.

Part Three: “Applying the Principles”

Part three has five chapter with an epilogue that follows. The chapters are: “The Tool that

Turned on Us”, “How the Best Teams Talk”, “Meetings Done Better”, “The White Space

Team”, and “Life Beyond Work”. “The Tool that Turned on Us” reflects on the use of email.

Emails and emailing are addictive practices and breaking that cycle will help create white-space

and bring effective writing and communication. Funt leaves us with the question, “If I lived

without email for a week, what would I do all day?” (Funt, 2021, pp. 66). I personally ask this

question throughout my workday and answer that I would spend more time with my team. “How
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the Best Teams Talk” discusses methods of communication with the overall message someone is

trying to convey. First, the individual reflects through an hourglass by paying attention to the

choices that they are making and how their past, present, or future is impacting it. Then

communication is broken down into these steps for effectiveness when encountering a situation:

vent, empathize, prepare, and share. Within the four steps, there may be different people that

help you navigate the circumstance but practicing creating a clear message will allow resolution

to the situation. The chapter also shows the beauty in the word “no”. Frequently, employees

within an organization do not feel empowered to say no if they are uninterested, already

overextended, or lack the ability to complete whatever is being asked. This section gave clear but

indirect uses of the word no, later, or only this time. “Meetings Done Better” shines a light on the

amount of accepted but unnecessary meetings or those that do not engage our attention into our

schedules. Accepting and attending meetings that do not serve us or our goals robs us of our

space, time, and energy. Meetings that do require our attendance, are we contributing sufficiently

and positively? If not, instilling “hall time” may be necessary. Hall time is the break between

meetings to pause, digest, refresh and prepare for the next one. I was proud to have taken hall

time between interviews this past weekend to reflect on the candidate I had just met with. “The

White Space Team” reflects on cultures within teams and organizations, and how the white space

can be created and continuous on a team with steps that you, as the leader, can control. Sharing

white space comes with dialog and creating dialog time to discuss changes, importance, and

possibility within mindsets. The example of rock climbing for this really helped me envision and

relate to building white space within a team. One step and one correct angle placement at a time.

The chapter also addresses the importance of connecting with the team or specific individuals on

the team to develop dynamics of trust, closeness, and empowerment. This creates an
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environment of collaboration with the result of lowering mistakes, gaining time back into the

day, and creating a more positive environment. “Life Beyond Work” is the final chapter that

pulls all aspects of life together in the workings of developing white space. Using white space

creates a focus on what matters most and for most people, it is not work. We all have hopes,

aspirations, and dreams that become bogged down in the day-to-day tasks, meetings, and

responsibilities where we end up overlooking what matters to us. The chapter gives us a sense of

permission to stop, feel satisfied, take away the devices, feeling joy, and living within each

moment. The question is what we are missing while we are stiving for professional or personal

achievement, what are we giving up because we are focused on things that done matter to us, or

what can we give up to live our life to the fullest.

Resonate

The lessons that resonated with me from this book came from different parts. The first

section that resonated with me was within the chapter “The False God of Busyness”. I am a busy

person, but this is because I find my sense of self-worth within the crazy busy schedule and

achievements. I rarely take breaks or feel satisfied with the completion of a task or project, so I

continue giving energy to things I do not need to. I relate and honor with others that are

perpetually busy and end up disliking or holding a bias against those that are not because I feel

that there is always something to do, work on, or complete. I have learned that being busy is first

a coping mechanism for social conformity and has killed my ability to stop, pause, and be

creative in solving complex problems. The second lesson that resonated with me was “The

Thieves of Time”. Throughout this chapter I reflected on my own thief and could not pinpoint

just one. I feel that depending on the situation I am in or addressing there are multiple thieves

that occur. In this reflection and reading, I have become more aware in my thief of activity,
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excellence, and drive with the ability to combat them when I push them too far. Finally, “The

White Space Team” was enlightening to me because the chapter broke down in detail how to

instill the use of white space within my team and hopefully the organization. The organization

has become deluded with optimization and efficiency but has overlooked the change in culture

for the worse. People within the organization are working alone and do not have community with

other similar positions that fully understands what each other is experiencing. Utilizing white

space for your own personal success is effective but doesn’t instill a culture of patience, vacation

time, trust, collaboration, or vulnerable with faults. After reading the book, I believe that I am in

a unique position to instill white space and a different culture within my team for the team’s

benefit and the standard my team will grow up to expect. I work on a team with 80-100

individuals depending on the season. The team is mostly made up of teenagers and young adults

who are working for the first time. I hope to subject them to a culture with white space, breaks,

paid time off, balance, empathy, and permission to do what they feel they need to for themselves.

These practices were something I wasn’t shown in my early career, and I feel I have suffered the

downfalls from it. Reading this book has allowed me to reflect that I am able to keep a busy

schedule (with some changes still needed) but need to use the tools I now have to ensure my own

success and survival.

Organizational Leadership

A Minute to Think by Juliet Funt corresponded with the classes throughout my

Organizational Leadership degree significantly. Through multiple classes, taking a literal minute

to think about the causes and effects of each action, behavior, and through process was shown to

be instrumental to the over function and effectiveness of an organization. One class that stands

out is OGL 220: Organizational Ethics. Within this class we went through a simulation that
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placed us into different positions of a company where we had to make decisions based on set

information provided that would either benefit the company as a whole or cause the least amount

of damage. This class and simulation reminded me of this book because there were strategic

pauses, we were able to take to weight the pros and cons of each situation or answer. Not only

was there time but the students within each group were able to collaborate and work together

towards the common goal of good metrics and organizational success. This also reminded me of

the class, OGL 343: Social Processes in Organizations. In this class we studied varied techniques

and processes within organizations to accomplish goals, decision making, and team

communication. I thought throughout reading this book that it would be important to add a

module to increase or introduce an understanding and importance of creating white space within

the social processes of organizations to better understand each other and what was important to

many organizations. This book is different from anything I have previously read or learned

because it is a unique individual reflection of leadership that causes a ripple effect throughout a

team or organization. Throughout every course I have taken, I never came across a leadership

technique that promotes pauses and reflection with the amount of importance this book has. The

research and clear success these practices have should promote wide-spread usage but doesn’t

seem to be discussed as openly.

Conclusion

In conclusion, A Minute to Think by Juliet Funt shows impeccable use of leadership that

relates to both personal and professional lives within each chapter. The book is well written and

thought out with clear success stories and applied uses for each concept. I was personally

impacted by the reading of this book through reflection and small actions made to my daily

routines to create white space. As a result, I have been able to take strategic pauses in high
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urgency situations and conversations with clear breaks of reflection taken afterwards. I believe

this book will assist with future Organizational Leadership major’s development and reflection

of leadership and this book should be more widely utilized in the study.
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Reference

Funt, J. (2021). A minute to think (1st ed.). Harper- Collins Publishers. ISBN 9780062970251.