“Be quick, but don’t hurry.” —John Wooden

“Be quick, but don’t hurry.” —John Wooden

In the pursuit of speed, many organizations stumble—not from a lack of effort, but from the pressure to rush.


Will Sansbury
Will Sansbury
“Be quick, but don’t...


Everybody wants to move fast.

Certainly, some self-sabotage by weighing themselves down with unnecessary bureaucracy that accumulates as they scale. They accidentally create an environment that won’t permit speed.

But in my experience, that’s not the most common cause of systemic failure to deliver. Most failure stems from trying to go faster than you can responsibly go.

We don’t lose races because our people are walking when they should be running. We lose because we force our people to run faster than they can.

We force our people to hurry, and then we are surprised when they stumble.

Cover Image: “Hurry” by Georgie Pauwels is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Comments

Related Articles

Productivity

Nobody Will Protect Your Focus For You

I rarely disagree* with Harvard Business Review. But then I read this: A meeting-free day or even half-day may be your ideal, but you may never have this type of time. Waiting for...

Posted on by Will Sansbury
Productivity

If You Want to Build a Ship…

My job as a leader is to set a destination, provide tools, smooth as much of the road ahead as possible, and steer when necessary. Thrust comes from deeper in the organization and...

Posted on by Will Sansbury