«Bench Time» – Co-Creation to find common ground for contradicting values

«Bench Time» – Co-Creation to find common ground for contradicting values

«Bench Time» is a metaphor for taking time out to review goals and values in our lives. Gareth Lymer of ,afterthecomma created it. I had the pleasure of meeting him as a lecturer and industry leader during the Hyper Island training. Gareth developed “Bench Time” when he realised how much the concept was resonating talking about it to our crew at Hyper Island. It is for many reasons people want to think about their careers. Or they wonder whether the directions of their careers are still valid and still fit. Or simply because our careers generally take much longer due to demographic developments. There are many reasons why it is important to take this time out and analyse your (professional) life. Increasingly, we see «Bench Time» as the process of discovering and expressing the individual authentic self and its skills in all areas of life.

The approach Gareth takes in developing Bench Time is fundamentally co-creative. As a group of Hyper Island Alumni, we take the core of Gareth’s idea and build on it to find and create collective values. In this way, it becomes a process in action. The process itself contributes a lot to the inspiration of the project.

The summarising question for Bench Time is: Which values do we want to pursue at what point in our lives? Gareth guided us through different value concepts, introducing concepts such as mindfulness and meditation and linking these in turn to value. At first glance, this seems to be a contradiction. But ultimately, we have to create a value of different sorts. Therefore, attribution of value, also of spiritual values, makes sense. In this way we can classify them or assign a specific value to them. Such an attitude of value can indeed be reflected on a personal level. I found it inspiring because it brings together two concepts that seem to contradict each other. The way Gareth put it, I realised that this need not be the case.

Do you want to share some thoughts? Are you interested in being part of a pilot program? Or would you like to be notified when the first course starts? Reach out to me; I am happy to keep you in the loop.