On Topic: Walter Neff goes bowling

We seem to have lost the art of how to take a moment.

Here's what I mean, from one of my favorite movies, 1944's 'Double Indemnity,” written by director Billy Wilder and novelist Raymond Chandler. In it, Phyllis Dietrichson (played by Barbara Stanwyck) and insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) spar as they get acquainted.

This is early on in their flirtation, before they plot to kill her husband for a $100,000 insurance payoff and things turn really bad:

Phyllis Dietrichson: 'Mr. Neff, why don't you drop by tomorrow evening about 8:30. He'll be in then.”

Neff: 'Who?”

Dietrichson: 'My husband. You were anxious to talk to him, weren't you?”

Neff: 'Yeah, I was. But I'm sort of getting over the idea, if you know what I mean.”

Dietrichson: 'There's a speed limit in this state, Mr. Neff. Forty-five miles an hour.”

Neff: 'How fast was I going, officer?”

Dietrichson: 'I'd say around 90.”

Neither of these characters hesitates for a millisecond in this breakneck dialogue - it's all libido. The contemplation comes later.

Just before Neff and Phyllis set their nasty conspiracy in motion, the insurance salesman stops off at a bowling alley to roll a few frames.

To 'blow off some steam,” as Neff says, if I recall correctly. Sort of like dropping by a bar for a quick one or going shopping after work. A long commute home along I-380 while listening to music or a podcast serves a similar purpose.

Yes, lots of folk still bowl these days, but nothing like in its heyday. And nothing says World War II-era America leisure-time activity like bowling.

Yet the point remains clear - here's a guy cogitating on how to commit a pretty complicated murder, for money and for the classic femme fatale. So to clear his head before proceeding, he tries to take a break.

Joanna Barsh and Johanne Lavoie, in an article in McKinsey Quarterly's April 2014 edition and based on their book, 'Centered Leadership,” write about taking time to pause.

Don't always react right away. Don't be so quick to make a big decision.

Reflect on what's happening at work, on decisions you need to take, on challenges that need to be resolved.

Take the stairs. Go for a coffee outside your building.

They also suggest an exercise in which you think back to a stressful conversation at work that maybe you didn't handle as well you could have. You made a snap decision or you hastily dismissed the person and what she or he was saying.

To help examine our motivations, the authors advise picturing an iceberg, with only a little showing above the water's surface.

'In this moment, notice the impact on yourself,” they write. 'What are you doing or not doing? What are you saying or not saying? How are you acting? What effect are your words and actions having?”

Below the waterline, what were you feeling and thinking but not communicating to the other person? What were some of the other factors connected to the issue being discussed that you didn't convey?

And while you're at it, Barsh and Lavoie advise, consider what's important to you. Moreover, what did you really want to get out of the situation?

This practice could alleviate some tension we feel and, going forward, help us remember to take a moment, as they used to say on 'Ally McBeal,” and pause.

It will make for better management and decision making.

And we might not end up like Walter Neff and Phyllis Dietrichson. (Sorry, you'll have to watch the movie to find out.)

' Michael Chevy Castranova is enterprise and Sunday business editor of The Gazette. (319) 398-5873; michaelchevy.castranova@thegazette.com