The Value of Pause
In a world racing toward AI efficiency, the most strategic move might be slowing down
Yesterday, I held my grandma's hand.
She's 86, moves slowly, and before I left, she held on for quite some time.
Warm. Peaceful. Deeply meaningful. She was happy.
In those quiet minutes, nothing was being optimized. No metrics were improving. No tasks were getting checked off.
No productivity gained.
And yet—it was everything.
That moment of pause taught me something I've been trying to articulate to schools and organizations for months:
We've forgotten how to stop.
And look, I am 100% guilty as well.
Those who know me, I am racing projects all the time.
The Underrated Power of Pause
We live in an age obsessed with acceleration, speed and producivity.
Faster outputs. Quicker results. 10x productivity.
I get it. We need productivity.
Imagine a hospital without efficiency and productivity, people die.
A business without producitity, people will lose jobs.
AI promises efficiency, and we're taking it—eagerly, hungrily, desperately.
After seven weeks teaching AI ethics across Asia and Europe, and working with over 100 educators here in Aotearoa, I've watched this pattern repeat: everyone wants to know how to go faster, better with less effort.
And yes I am guilty of this too.
But nobody's asking:
What are we losing when we never slow down?
The answer is more profound than we realize.
What Happens in the Pause
At InspiraEd, our mission is turning AI Anxiety into AI Confidence. We help schools and organizations move from overwhelmed to in control.
But confidence—real confidence—doesn't come from speed.
It comes from depth.
And depth only happens in the pause.
Deep learning requires time. ⏳
When students rush from confusion to ChatGPT, they skip the crucial struggle where understanding actually forms. The pause before comprehension—that uncomfortable space of not-knowing and uncertainty—is where real learning lives.
Deep connection requires presence. 🤝
My grandma's hand-holding wasn't efficient, but it created something AI never will: felt connection and deepened relationship. The kind that changes you. The kind you remember decades later.
Deep reflection requires stillness. 💭
We can't think clearly while sprinting. Reflection needs space. Silence. The permission to stop and ask: Is this working? Is this what matters?
These aren't luxuries.
They're necessities.
And we're designing them out of our classrooms and workplaces entirely.
The Paradox of Progress
Here's the irony: AI never pauses.
It responds instantly. It never admits uncertainty. It'll confidently hallucinate before saying "I don't know."
Should we mirror that? Should our students learn to skip the pause and demand instant answers?
I don't think so.
Because the pause is where wisdom lives.
When I work with schools implementing AI, I see two paths emerging:
Path 1: The Race
AI generates the lesson plan. The assessment. The feedback. S
Students submit AI work. Teachers use AI to check AI-generated work and give AI-generated feedback, and soemtime grades. Students race to use AI to improve the AI-generated feedback for their AI-generated work.
Everything speeds up. No depth, no pause, human out of the loop.
Path 2: The Partnership
AI handles repetitive tasks, creating time and space. Time for teachers to actually notice and slow down with their students. Space for students to grapple with hard ambiguous problems. Room for the pause that makes learning and connection real and deepened.
Only one of these paths leads to education that transforms lives.
Which one are you on?
From AI Anxiety to AI Confidence: The Role of Pause
At InspiraEd, we teach schools how to adopt AI responsibly. Not just ethically—though that matters.
And strategy requires pause.
Here's what we've learned works:
1. Design Pause Into Your Day ⏸️
Don't let it happen accidentally. Protect it deliberately.
10-minute reflection periods before moving to the next thing
"Slow processing" time after introducing new concepts
No-tech discussion circles where thinking comes before searching
Buffer time between meetings so people can actually think
2. Teach Students to Pause 🧠
The most powerful thing we can give students isn't faster access to answers. It's the confidence to sit with questions.
Encourage grappling with problems before asking AI
Celebrate wrong answers that show real thinking
Create assignments where the struggle is the point
Model confusion as part of learning, not a problem to eliminate
3. Model Pause for Your Team 🌱
Leaders set the pace. If you're always rushing, your team will too.
Deliberately say "I need time to think about this"
Stay late figuring things out together, not just assigning tasks
Ask questions you don't have answers to
Share your thinking process, not just your conclusions
The Strategic Case for Slowness
Let me be clear: this isn't anti-AI.
I built and learn AI. I believe in its power. I use it constantly.
But I also believe this:
The organizations that thrive in the AI era won't be the fastest.
They'll be the ones brave enough to slow down, strategically.
And the research backs this up.
The Slowness That Deepens Learning
In a world obsessed with instant answers, we've forgotten that real learning requires time + struggles.
Studies in physics education demonstrate that deliberate practice—structured, purposeful learning that prioritizes skill mastery over speed—produces students who score 5-10% higher on assessments, even when spending the same amount of time on task. The difference? Intentional slowness.
When students engage in deep learning approaches rather than racing to the next task, their critical thinking and problem-solving abilities improve significantly A pedagogical study on promoting students' deep learning through design-based learning - PMC.
The pattern is undeniable: understanding forms in the pause, not in the rush.
When students skip from confusion straight to ChatGPT, they bypass the struggle. And that uncomfortable space of not-knowing—that pause before comprehension—is precisely where real learning lives (Deliberate Practice: Unlocking Student Potential).
The Slowness That Builds Trust
Trust doesn't happen at 10x speed. It happens in the moments we so often skip.
Research demonstrates that trust and psychological safety are linked to positive outcomes including team behaviours and overall performance (Trust and psychological safety review). Studies confirm that organizational trust is associated with profits, innovation, organizational survival, job satisfaction, and team performance (Emerald Insight).
But you can't rush trust. You can't optimize presence.
A research with 283 nurses revealed that psychological safety—which takes time to cultivate—is critical to achieving optimal organizational performance.
The Slowness That Sparks Innovation
Here's the paradox: the fastest way to innovation might be slowing down.
Research from Harvard shows that mindfulness practices—which require deliberately slowing down—create space for "generative thinking": stepping back to ask not only whether we've identified the right solutions, but whether we've even identified the right questions
“The right question is usually more important than the right answer”
Steve Jobs and Ray Dalio both used mindfulness practice—intentional pauses—to challenge assumptions and enhance strategic insight (How Mindfulness Improves Strategic Thinking - Mindful).
Recent research reveals that during downtime, when we allow our minds to wander, daydreaming becomes a strong driver of creativity.
The best ideas don't come from constant motion. They emerge in stillness.
The Courage to Slow Down
They'll be the schools where teachers have time—actual, protected time—to notice when a student is struggling. Not with the content, but with life.
They'll be the businesses where teams pause before implementing the next shiny tool and ask: Will this make us more human, or less?
They'll be the places where slowness isn't seen as weakness. Where pause is valued as much as productivity. Where leaders have the courage to say: "This needs more time."
Because here's what the research—and my grandma's hand—both teach us:
The things that matter most cannot be accelerated.
They can only be lived.
Slowly. Intentionally. With presence.
And that might be the most strategic move of all.