Does Anyone Know What Time It Is?

In 1969, a band called the Chicago Transit Authority released its first album with a lead single titled: “Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?” The second line of the song continues, “Does anyone really care?” It became a huge hit, and the band dropped the name Transit Authority and became Chicago.

Philip Zimbardo, a renowned psychologist and emeritus professor at Stanford University, cares a great deal about time and is always up to the minute. He seems to always be asking the questions, “Does anyone really know what time it is? Or does anyone know what time place they reside in?” In his book The Secret Power of Time, Zimbardo breaks down how we spend our time, classifying people into 6 main time zones, with two in the present, two in the past and two in the future.

1. Past Positive: These are the people that love “remember when” conversations; they love remembering the good times, keep great family albums from every vacation and generally live in the past.

2. Past Negative: These are the resentful people who focus solely on regret and failure. They complain about their place in society, complain about their childhood, and not having a fair and honest chance. They hold no accountability to themselves.

3. Present Hedonistic: These types of people live for pleasure and avoid pain and discomfort. They are generally close to the equator, where the weather never varies. They tend to seek knowledge or sensation.

4. Present Fated: These are the type of people who claim it doesn’t pay to plan, and that their life is fated. They believe their poverty, religion, or the conditions they are currently living under fated them.

5. Future Work: Most prevalent amongst the time zones of people, these types of people have learned to work instead of merely playing. They have one foot in the present with an eye on the future and resist the temptations of life.

6. Future Faith: These are the type of people that believe in the “afterlife.” These people believe that life begins after the death of the mortal body and do everything in their current life to preserve their future life. These people have great trust in their beliefs.

When you assemble a staff or inherit one, make sure you understand the time zones the members of your team live in. Not all will live in the same place, as Zimbardo believes that through particular education and religions can significantly influence the zone we tend to reside in. Our job as leaders is to try and make everyone a Future Work Person — get everyone to live in the present, but care about and strategically prepare for the future. It doesn’t sound hard until you sit down with these six categories analyzing your team. Then you realize you have a ton of work to do.

Get moving, you know what time it is.

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