Chapter 6
Just a short one this week…
…It is holiday season after all, and no matter how quickly we want (or need) something to happen, life and all its external forces will determine the pace…and so it should, we all need to rest and recoup, reindex our thoughts… and consider what we are, and are not, in control of.
It would be wrong of anyone to think that delivering services to Stockport’s 294,200 residents is a mechanistic, simple undertaking. It is a highly creative process, constantly morphing and shifting in nature as residents arrive and leave the borough, legislation and policy changes at regional and national levels, and global events impose their effects at locally.
This reminded me of a holiday activity Mrs T took our eldest to last week. A creative process, dealing with a matter that shifts in shape and form constantly, sensitive to the environment and any small intervention.
A lesson they learned is one I share, in mantra version, constantly with friends and colleagues.
“Slow is smooth and smooth is fast”
Going faster for the sake of going faster will not make you faster, it will make you slower.
Yes we want to increase pace, but that isn’t achieved by putting your foot on the gas.
It is a hard won habit, a discipline. It is often said that your ability to go fast (safely) is not so much dependent on the propulsion power of your engine, more so the responsiveness and stopping power of your brakes!
Our Summer vacation will bring this notion home to us…as does xmas! How does this relate specifically to my work or anyone’s work, the work? Well, the preparation has been done, the discovery & diagnostic run, written up, submitted. Would I want a decision to be rushed now? No, I wouldn’t.
I’d like the right decision to be made in the right time by the right people…and if that means the process slows down a little bit for now, good. Wrong decisions usually have to be remade, and that, I have found, is a much slower route to value over the long haul.
I hope you are enjoying your Summer so far. Thanks for following.
by Matt Turner, 11/10/22