“Gosh, you’re grumpy today,” I heard, as I parked the car.
It hadn’t been addressed to me, but to the man in the car beside me, by his adolescent daughter. Though not feeling particularly grumpy myself, her comment got me thinking.

Everyone experiences moods. Some, more frequently and more intensely than others. Everyone experiences moments of concentration, even preoccupation— when the vastness of possible concerns (and/or even the horizon of one’s business concerns) momentarily vanish in the white light of a task immediately before us ( The poet , William Carlos Williams, himself a doctor, wrote a delightful poem about a physician– momentarily distracted from his conduct of a physical examination–  with his attentions to the removing a gummed label from a jar).

It is perhaps, ironic, that in these moments of intense concentration, when nothing else seems to matter but the issue inside our heads, that our trust is absolute in the security and endurance of the worlds we’ve effectively abandoned in our extreme concentration. But its a false article of faith, as the girl in the car realized through her action. Her dad was anchored in grumpiness. Therefore, his horizon had become limited. Minimally, he was missing something about his daughter’s perceptions. And her concern for him (and his effect on the family) was causing her to focus her own energies on alerting him to his momentary impairment. In so doing, she was limiting her own focus rather than channeling energy to some more pleasant field.

I arrived at my meeting, still thinking about what I’d seen in the parking lot; and in the consultation that followed, was reminded of what I’d just heard, when the young executive I was talking to rolled her eyes as she mentioned her own father— the founder of the family’s business: the effort she took in minding him; the constriction she felt in her own under utilized capabilities; the resentment she felt in his rejection of her efforts; and the tragedy of all that emotion, which she realized was felt on all sides- father, daughter, and everyone else- siphoned off from the creative acts of business productivity.

The effects of moods, passing or relatively stable, and other states of mind can easily become barriers to creative and flexible thought. In a business setting, they can often diminish the competitive advantages gained through close collegial contact and mutual purpose. Hardened into a routine of family dynamics (grumpy dad and caring/nagging daughter), they may impede business productivity and efficiency.

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