My Father Calmed Me Like This Book Will You
Any time I find myself rushing things - perhaps because of nervousness or even excitement - I remember what my father/coach used to do when I was struggling on the mound. I would look over at him standing beside the dugout. He would open his palms toward the ground, slowly pushing them downward as if gently tapping the heads of children. At the same time his head gave a slight nod, and his eyes were saying, "You are letting your head get in the way again. Relax, slow down, and focus. You're just playing catch with the catcher." I was an emotional ball player who tried to think about every possibility. But instead of harnessing these qualities, I often let my emotions get the best of me while my brain was over thinking. Sometimes the only thing that brought me back to focus was that one simple gesture from my father.
I wish I could teleport my father into the decision-making processes of every business in the world. At all levels of organization there are people making decisions on the fly, managers rushing into action, and leaders making bold moves without making sure it is best for the company. It would often be helpful to have someone like my father around to say, "Hey, slow down and make sure this is what's right." But my father can't fly and teleportation is still just a dream, so we're going to have to turn to plan B, which is a book by Joey Reiman and Andrea Hershatter, and it's titled, Business at the Speed of Molasses: How Patience Produces Profits.
The title of this book might suggest that we all substitute Lazy Boys for desk chairs, but that's not what the authors are trying to say. They don't want us to just kick back and relax with our feet up, they want us instead to take each decision as it comes, and make sure that every decision is made according to what the company is trying to accomplish. When my pops would tell me through gesture to relax, he didn't mean that I slow down to the point of laziness, he meant that I should get rid of all the thoughts and emotions that weren't directly tied to pitching the ball.
What the authors in this book try to do is "show how enduring performance results from slowing down and building a business on the basis of a master idea--one that guides managers and employees in serving customers, adding value to products and services, and reminding everyone why they're in business in the first place." When we get to fast, when we step away from the fundamentals of what we do, we often end up with, well, crap. The products and services don't do what they should. On a larger scale, companies move to fast to acquire other companies without fully understanding what that acquired company does to make the overall business better.
Think of it this way: when we rush to judgment we are usually compromising reputation. Why? Because when we are too fast we tend to forget about things like purpose, quality, and you know, the customer. And when we forget about the customer, the customer, in time, forgets about us. So slow down and make sure all your company's decision have the purpose and quality that is fundamental in creating an enduring identity.
By the way, you sort of have to be good at what you do in the first place. My father always calmed me down, but as I may have mentioned before, I couldn't hit the broad side of a freaking barn most of the time, unless by "barn" you mean "the batter." I hit plenty of batters.
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