Six Lenses
Ways of seeing time in organizations.
These aren't a framework. They're not claims about how organizations work. They're lenses—ways of looking that we're testing.
We don't yet know which are real, which collapse into each other, or which are missing entirely. That's what the observation is for.
If you're looking with us, these are the temporalities we're paying attention to.
Chronos
Clock time. The one we see.
Calendars, deadlines, quarters, durations. Time as quantity—measured, scheduled, billed. This is the only temporality organizations consciously manage.
What to notice: How is time measured here? What gets scheduled? What's the relationship between stated duration and actual duration?
Kairos
The ripe moment.
The Greeks used this for the moment when the archer releases, the weaver throws the shuttle, the speaker seizes the opening. Time not as quantity but as quality—the moment that's right, or missed.
What to notice: When did something shift? When was a decision suddenly possible that wasn't before? When did an opening appear and close? What made it ripe?
Cyclical
The rhythm that returns.
Not calendar cycles—the actual patterns of energy and depletion. The shape that repeats across projects, teams, and seasons. Growth, consolidation, renewal, decay. Pattern beneath pattern.
What to notice: What's repeating? What season is this? Has this happened before? What's the actual rhythm—not the official one?
Situational
The nature of this moment.
The I Ching doesn't ask "when" but "what kind of time is this?" Each configuration has its own character. Waiting time. Forcing time. Dissolving time. Advancing time.
What to notice: What does this situation call for? Is action right, or stillness? Is this a time of building or clearing? What happens when people force what the situation says to wait?
Depth
Time that touches meaning.
Moments when purpose is present—not mentioned, but felt. When the work connects to something beyond the immediate. Most organizational time is flat. Occasionally, it has depth.
What to notice: When did time feel full rather than empty? When was meaning present? When was it absent despite activity?
Debt
The weight of deferred futures.
Every postponed decision, unresolved conflict, avoided reckoning—each is a claim on future time. This weight accumulates invisibly until it doesn't.
What to notice: What keeps getting deferred? What's the weight of "later" here? Where is debt accumulating? What would it cost to pay it down?
A Warning
The lenses can become a trap.
If you go into observation thinking "now I'll find Kairos," you'll find it—whether it's there or not. The mind is very good at confirming what it's looking for.
The discipline is to observe first, name later. Write down what happened. Then, afterward, ask which lens—if any—helps you see it more clearly.
If none of them fit, that's interesting. If something doesn't have a name yet, that's more interesting.
The goal isn't to sort reality into six boxes. It's to see what's actually there.
How to Use These
Not as categories to sort observations into. As questions to hold lightly while you watch.
Sit in a meeting. Notice what you notice. Afterward, scan the lenses:
- What was happening in clock time?
- Was there a kairotic moment—seized or missed?
- What cycle is this part of?
- What kind of time was this, situationally?
- Was depth present or absent?
- What debt accumulated or got paid?
You won't see all six every time. Some may never show up. Some may reveal themselves constantly. That's data.
Report What You See
This is a shared inquiry. We're not teaching a method—we're developing one.
If you observe something that doesn't fit these lenses, that's as valuable as something that does. The lenses are provisional. Reality gets the last word.
Write to us. Tell us what you're finding. The map doesn't exist yet. We're drawing it together.