OP #311: The Culture of the Pause

Why slowing down might be the most productive thing you do this quarter.

Author

Darren Herman
October 28, 2025

I’m writing this from South Carolina. My son’s here, catching up with some friends he met at a summer college program, which means I’ve got a couple unstructured days to myself — a rare thing.

So I wandered around downtown Columbia, completely unaware that the entire town would basically shut down by 2 p.m. The Gamecocks were hosting the Crimson Tide at 3, and by kickoff, you couldn’t find a soul on the streets. I’ve always known college football was big in the South, but this was religion.

With everything closed, I ducked into a quiet movie theater and caught Springsteen. Funny enough, Born in the U.S.A. was the first CD I ever bought. I’ve never been a huge Springsteen guy — my brother-in-law’s the one who yells “BRUUUUCE!” at concerts — but I’ll see any music documentary.

The movie was good. Not what I expected, though I’m not sure what I did expect. I walked out thinking less about the music, the tour, or the fandom — and more about my dad. And my son. The film’s real heartbeat wasn’t the stage lights, it was family. The stuff we carry, the stories we inherit, and how we spend our lives trying to make peace with both.

Switching gears…

I promised myself I wouldn’t write about the New York Knicks until at least 5 games into the season. As of you reading this, it’ll be 3 games in, so maybe next week.

My friend Tyler over at Shopify sent me their new 2025 Global Holiday Report, and it’s too good not to share.   If you’re in e-commerce or just trying to make sense of consumer behavior heading into Q4, this one’s worth your time. 

Also resurfacing the AirStreet State of AI report I mentioned a few weeks back. It’s been making the rounds — and for good reason. It’s one of the sharpest takes on where AI is actually reshaping work (and where it’s just hype).

Here are a few articles to get us started:

Thanks again for reading and sharing your time and attention with me. I hope you enjoy this OP which was inspired by my time down in Columbia, SC. If you received this OP letter because someone forwarded it to you, you can sign up for free here.

Be well, do good.
Darren

The Culture of the Pause

Walking out of that quiet theater in Columbia, I realized how rare that kind of stillness is. Everyone was at the Gamecocks game. I had the streets — and my thoughts — to myself.

It hit me how little space most of us leave for pause. In growth-mode companies, silence feels like failure. If the Slack channel isn’t buzzing, if the dashboards aren’t flashing green, if your calendar isn’t wall-to-wall, you start to wonder what you’re missing.

But maybe what we’re missing is exactly that: the pause.

The best operators I know build it into their rhythm. They treat thinking as part of the job, not a luxury. They give themselves — and their teams — time to zoom out, breathe, and ask the kind of questions that never show up in a weekly KPI deck.

A while back, I wrote about “the work between the work.” The stuff that doesn’t make a slide but shapes the outcome. This is the same idea. The pause is where the good ideas sneak in.

One of our portfolio CEOs blocks two hours every Friday afternoon and labels it “Strategic Drift.” No calls, no email, no Slack. He goes for a walk or sketches ideas that may never see the light of day. When I asked him why, he said, “My best ideas come when I stop forcing them.” I get that.

We’ve built a culture that worships motion — the next sprint, the next campaign, the next deal. But motion without meaning doesn’t get you anywhere. The pause gives speed a direction.

When I work with teams, I see the same pattern: people burn out not because they’re short on effort, but because they’re short on clarity. They’ve been sprinting so long they forget where they were running to.

The pause doesn’t have to be dramatic. It can be ten quiet minutes before a board meeting. Or an offsite where nobody opens a laptop. Or ending a team call with, “What are we not seeing right now?”

Those small pauses create big space — for better ideas, better instincts, better leadership.

Springsteen said, “You can’t start a fire without a spark.” The pause is where the spark happens. It’s the moment between what’s working and what’s possible.

If you’re leading growth right now, give yourself permission to pause. Protect the whitespace. Schedule the drift.

Speed is easy. Clarity is earned.

** As I wrote the above, it brought me back to why I switched from digital to analog watches. Also, it brought me back to why I keep my phone on silent, 24/7/365. We need to create space for ourselves. At least I do.

Below are a few articles I came across this past week that I found interesting. While I may not agree with everything in each one, I think they're worth a read. If you stumble upon an article you think I or the Operating Partner community would enjoy, feel free to share it with me. Of course, I reserve the right to decide what gets featured in the OP.

The Universal Ads API (Brian O’Kelley)

Thank you again for subscribing to the OP. I always have a lot of fun putting these together. If you have any feedback, good or bad, please do not hesitate to reach out and let me know.

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