Chronos versus Kairos
- Meg Bower
- Oct 3, 2023
- 5 min read
October 2023
October Musings on Chronos versus Kairos, in Planning
My first memory of hearing about Kairos was in a dialogue training session last winter with Peter Garrett. Peter spoke of Kairos as (among other things) the feeling of it being the “right time” for something, like speaking up in a meeting or making a major career shift. Peter went on to explain that, while the western world revolves around the metered, measured ticking of Chronos, Kairos is an older, bigger concept of time that is more about rhythm and balance, seasons and intuition. It is this other feeling of the appropriateness of the moment which one needs to develop as a dialogue practitioner.
Curious about the origin of this different concept of time, I scoured the internet for more information and quickly learned a) Kairos was a figure in both Greek and Roman mythology, and b) there isn’t much to read. Kairos or Caerus (whose Roman name is Occasio or Tempus) was the fleet-footed son of Zeus. One single and much photographed sculpture crafted by the 4th Century sculptor Lysippus imagined Kairos as a running figure with a long shock of hair over his face, but bald on the back of his head – symbolizing that opportunity can only be seized from the front, but is quickly past us, with nothing left to grab. Wikipedia cites associations with archery (the opportune time to release the arrow) and weaving (the moment when the shuttle may pass through the warp) as examples of Kairos. All the descriptions of Kairos I was able to locate incorporated moving parts with choice – usually the choice to act or not to act.
The expanded concept of Kairos as a more intuitive, philosophical approach to timing and choice of action was immediately resonant and remains so, as I teeter between being mom to a child and being mom to a young adult, as the days grow undeniably shorter, and as I contemplate sweaters and spading the garden under. Kairos gives us the sense that it is time to leave a job…that a rainy Saturday is a good day to stay home and read…or that our child is ready to venture out alone. Kairos engages an almost mystical sense of “right-ness” of things for the time that it is, like smelling the coming rain and knowing it is time to pack up the picnic.
The idea that everything has its season is as old as Kairos, so much so that our Chronos-driven society imbues those who operate based primarily on Kairos with precious, ancient, and elusive wisdom. Those joyful gurus – Jimmy Buffett comes to mind – seem to hold a secret to happiness that the rest of us only dream about from our Chronos-driven, anxiety-ridden carpool lines, as they seize the moment and chase happiness as a goal.
So…what do Chronos and Kairos have to do with planning?
Chronos provides a reliable schedule.
Chronos-style time is the metered pace of regular activities and things we can schedule on a calendar. This method of organizing activities is familiar. We hold regular meetings every week at the same time on the same day, with the same people. We complete the same routine tasks weekly or monthly. These activities are the ones that keep our buildings in great shape and our refrigerators full. Chronos based planning provides the tactical activities we must do and paces them out realistically over time.
From a facility planning perspective, Chronos works well for allocating time and resources to iterative activities such as facility maintenance or standing committee meetings to discuss short-term activities, decisions, and processes. Ongoing planning tasks work very well when scheduled based on Chronos.
Any road can take you there!
One of my favorite quotes is Lewis Carroll, speaking through the Cheshire cat, who asks Alice where she is going. When she replies that she doesn’t know, he says, “If you don’t know where you are going any road can take you there.” At best, looking to Chronos-based activities for long-term planning solutions can be a bit like walking steadily forward on a path without concern for the destination – you get the walking done, but you might not go anywhere interesting. And at its worst, this type of planning can lead to reactionary funding of big projects in a panic, as response to a crisis or disaster.
A county client of mine has been working on their real estate inventory for over 15 years in two major municipal hubs. While they’ve been doing a great job balancing service and space, improving facility conditions, and reducing cost across their portfolio, during that same 15 years the population of their jurisdiction has been slowly dispersing out of those cities to smaller towns up and down a major Interstate. The changes in population density have sufficiently diffused the need for space in those municipalities that they have rendered consolidation goals moot. No matter how well they execute their tactics in Chronos time, they will have missed the strategic Kairos of their planning context if they simply maintain their forward trajectory.
Kairos provides the timing we rely upon to get it right.
Kairos-style thinking enhances the potential for success of project efforts. When my daughter and I were refinishing a dresser last month, Chronos dictated that we must do the final polyurethane on a weekend with sufficient free time, but it was pure Kairos that helped us know, one Saturday with low humidity and no wind, that it was time. Our project might have succeeded if we’d adhered to Chronos and picked a day in advance, but incorporating Kairos-based flexibility and intuition gave us faster, better results.
The same is true for incorporating Kairos into large-scale planning. People will say, “It is time for a courthouse replacement.” They might mean that the political climate is amenable to approving the expense, undertaking management of a major capital project, and supporting the disruptions that will accompany the construction and moves implied. They might mean that public support for change exceeds nostalgia for the existing. They also might mean there are sufficient problems with the old facility that they think it is worth exploring alternatives. Just like the dresser project, a community requires Kairos – an appropriateness of time - to successfully implement a costly, change-inducing project.
When you know better, do better.
Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
Master planning stitches together Kairos visioning and opportunities with Chronos implementation in ways that can help us “do better.” Master plans identify large-scale priorities and goals within a Kairos-style set of contextual assumptions. Once those goals are determined, the master plan identifies projects and schedules them along a Chronos style timeline. A really solid master plan will also include assumptions – analytical and contextual Kairos-style indicators – that can help a client recognize the right moment for major projects, as opportunities present themselves in the future. This combination of Kairos and Chronos can weave a powerful plan that is both strategic and flexible, which clients can adapt to circumstances going forward.
In the case of my client, observations like noticing a shift in the population density and linking teleworkers at the local coffee shop to a post-pandemic work trend led to a service-oriented master plan to help reset the county’s strategic goals for how they house staff and deliver services to citizens. My client’s very sound asset management strategies will continue, but their strategic goals will include satellite services in growing communities and telework options for their staff.
And now, Kairos tells me it is time to make a fresh coffee. Chronos dictates that I will drink it while listening to the Byrds.
“To everything, there is a season.”
All the best, Meg
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