Move Slow to Go Fast
My mother is not someone who has ever moved slowly. I’m not saying she’s not thoughtful or deliberate; she just likes FAST. She can’t just be, she is compelled to do.
As my two sisters and I have gotten older, one of the things we have observed is that being with her can be a little exhausting! At 86, she is still walking two miles a day, painting, practicing yoga, and working as a therapist.
And… playing pickleball, which is how she fell and fractured her hip three weeks ago, requiring a titanium replacement and lots of rehab.
She’s home now and doing well. However, the abrupt change to her previously independent lifestyle has been significant. Since the worst possible thing would be another fall while still healing, she has to remain active, and she has to move very, very slowly.
It’s hard to watch, and for who she is and how she is wired, even harder to do.
Managing Big Change Often Requires Slowing Down
I work with a variety of extraordinarily capable leaders, most of whom can see the changes and calibrations that need to happen within their respective organizations. There’s much to be done (toomuch, usually). For each of these leaders, as with my mother, it’s hard to go slow when you like and know how to go fast.
Here as well, a measured, deliberate approach is the key to getting the results each leader is working towards and, ideally, with a minimum of “falls.” Going fast is only possible when one’s team members are clearly, tightly aligned and moving in lockstep in the same direction.
Moving more slowly, collaboratively, does more than just improve the outcome (although it certainly does that). It can also increase the satisfaction, productivity, and retention of your staff. People want to feel they have a hand in where their organization is going; the best contributors are not interested in simply following orders. As a leader doing the hard work of social change, you want to be surrounded by colleagues, not folks who will just follow your direction.
Align on Expectations
Upset happens when expectations are misaligned. That can occur in marriages, parent-child relationships, friendships, and certainly in the workplace, where rather than just two people involved, there may be hundreds. Within organizations, communication needs to be especially clear and tight. Even more so when there is a great deal of change happening in the organization and also within the world we are living.
In practice, however, expectations are often assumed and inadvertently left unclear. For example, a leader may ask for something (a report, an update, a clarification) and a few hours later, wonder why it still hasn’t arrived. After all, her colleague said “no problem” when the request was made. Absent clarification regarding timing — “When is this needed?” “When can you turn this around?” — that colleague may have assumed next week was perfectly fine. Often, given the inferred urgency of the leaders’ tone and focus, asking for clarification (even asking for help in reprioritizing an overly full plate of responsibilities) does not feel possible to your colleague.
In this and in so many other instances, the disconnect does not occur because these individuals are not smart, uncaring, or don’t appreciate one another. They were simply moving too quickly — they didn’t take the time to dig in and ensure everyone was on the same page.
Speak Into People’s Listening
Command and control work environments in which leaders lead and everyone else follows don’t work in most organizational settings (potential life and death situations, such as in the military, and transporting lots of people in a plane or train, being the notable exceptions). Our understanding about organizational excellence suggests that no one person has all the answers; you are much more likely to find the best way forward by actively listening — in order to get to a better place and create a space in which others can act.
That said, doing so takes time and patience. By slowing down, soliciting input, and listening deeply (staunchly committed to the belief that you will learn something new), you will see more, broaden your perspective, improve your understanding of how interdependent things are, and enhance relationships amongst your team. Because if you get there as a leader and nobody is with you, you have lost the game.
It’s Hard to Move Slow
Every organization has real and what often feel like intense expectations about pace and progress. There are constant pressures regarding money spent, meeting the needs of beneficiaries, stakeholders, partners, funders, etc., not to mention outsized to-do lists that hang over each of us. All of these things function as counterweights to moving slowly.
Though, as I have been reminded during these past few weeks supporting my mother, there is much to be gained by taking each step slowly and deliberately, feeling the weight of each foot as it touches the ground, and focusing on steady progress and improvement.
As my mom is (re-)learning, there is power, wisdom, and richness in moving slowly. And it’s fucking hard.