Everybody is striving for work-life balance, but it just isn’t happening.

I rejected the idea of balance while ago and have been using the notion of work-life harmony to suggest that we want to recognize and honor the connections and joy between these 2 parts of our lives. After all, when we are at work, we take time to do personal stuff and most certainly aspects of work merge into our personal time.

This week, however, a new idea came up that changed my thinking again. Talking to friend and colleague, Dr Deborah Gilboa, she told me that she is thinking of this concept as Work-Life Spaghetti. Dr. G, as she is known, is a practicing physician and a stress and resilience expert who frequently speaks at conferences and on TV.

We had gotten together to compare resilience notes and she shared her idea of work-life spaghetti. It immediately resonated with me.

We can’t separate these aspects of our lives and why would we want to? I get great ideas for work when I’m out walking Cody in the morning and I take time during the workday to post on Facebook or plan a trip. Our lives are fully intertwined, and the strands of family, friends, and home are hopelessly connected to the elements of projects, marketing, and leadership.

The difficulty with the other approaches is that it forces these 2 elements into a fight, which just creates more stress. Embracing the idea that our lives are “like a bowl of spaghetti” allows us to relax a bit and enjoy the dish.

Thanks Dr. G, now do you have a recommendation for a sauce?

Happenings

The Leadership Café 
What an amazing interview this week with Greg Spencer.  Greg is the President and CEO of Randall Industries, a manufacturing company that provides chemical-based cleaning solutions domestically and internationally. In 2006, the company acquired the assets of Space Chemical Inc., a specialty chemical manufacturing firm that has been operation for over 25 years. 

In this episode, Greg discusses his vast resume and how he went from attending the HBCU Wilberforce University to joining the Air Force and working for US Steel for 22 years. He also discusses how Randall Industries came to be about, seeing that there were only three minority and veteran-owned chemical manufacturers in the United States at the time of acquiring the company.