Time by Design (Paperback)

Dawna I. Ballard

ISBN 10: 0262552701 / ISBN 13: 9780262552707

Published by MIT Press Ltd, 2025

About this Item

Paperback. How effective individuals, teams, and organizations routinely communicate slow to go fast, and how time as a feature of human experience can actually be designed.How effective individuals, teams, and organizations routinely communicate slow to go fast, and how time as a feature of human experience can actually be designed.Speed in collective action, like teamwork or organizing, is never simply a time-based issue. While conventional theory relies on time-based interventions to achieve speed, this approach typically fails. In Time by Design, Dawna Ballard shows how speed is actually a function of the relationship between time and communication, or chronemics.Ballard identifies two communication design logics-fast and slow-that reflect contrasting beliefs about how communication works to support urgent, time-sensitive work demands. Fast communication design logics are linear, short term in orientation, and treat time in interaction as transactional. Slow communication design logics are nonlinear and long term in orientation and treat time in interaction as transcendent. Given these distinct approaches, the book offers a practical toolkit that shows the reader how the two chronemic designs can be used in complementary fashion-and how effective teams, communities, and organizations routinely communicate slow to go fast. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780262552707

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Time by Design (Paperback)
• Publisher: MIT Press Ltd
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262552701
• ISBN 13: 9780262552707
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

How effective individuals, teams, and organizations routinely communicate slow to go fast, and how time as a feature of human experience can actually be designed.

Speed in collective action, like teamwork or organizing, is never simply a time-based issue. While conventional theory relies on time-based interventions to achieve speed, this approach typically fails. In Time by Design, Dawna Ballard shows how speed is actually a function of the relationship between time and communication, or chronemics.

Ballard identifies two communication design logics—fast and slow—that reflect contrasting beliefs about how communication works to support urgent, time-sensitive work demands. Fast communication design logics are linear, short term in orientation, and treat time in interaction as transactional. Slow communication design logics are nonlinear and long term in orientation and treat time in interaction as transcendent. Given these distinct approaches, the book offers a practical toolkit that shows the reader how the two chronemic designs can be used in complementary fashion—and how effective teams, communities, and organizations routinely communicate slow to go fast.

About the Author

Dawna I. Ballard is Associate Professor of Organizational Communication and Technology in the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas Austin. Her research and commentary are regularly featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, The Atlantic, Fortune, Forbes, Inc., and NPR, as well as venues such as SXSW and Creative Mornings.