Whilst I froze my Facebook account in 2016, I do still visit occasionally to keep up to date with the goings-on of friends and family, particularly back in Cayman, where it still seems widely used. The other day it popped up a “memory” for me of a post from a client back in 2011 who acknowledged me for saying to them (thank you, David Kirkaldy!):
“slow down to speed up later. It works”
For more than a decade this has been one of the most commonly repeated for me to clients and others seeking to create real change for themselves and their business. I am reminded of it today as last night I was joined for the first time in a while by my “right hand” in working with leadership teams in running the first of a series of sessions (on zoom, of course) to establish then document their Culture. I was highly energised to present ideas and concepts to them, but my esteemed and learned colleague stopped me more than once to slow down the process, to take time to ensure everyone was aligned before we moved on. The result, in addition to greater alignment, was that by taking time to slow down, we will speed up later.
So, though I’ve been teaching this adage for a very long time now, I too occasionally need to be reminded of the value of practising this.
While I am here, if you value more repetition, a few more articles looking at this through different angles of the prism:
- October 2020: I repeat – slow down to speed up later
- September 2019: Cascading Leadership **this is a core article on the site, a leadership model that I find of huge value to leading change
- October 2018: Slow down to speed up later