3 Ways to Speed Up by Slowing Down

A week or two ago, I was preparing a proposal for a new advisory opportunity.

If you think someone with years of experience in the CEO chair is immune to getting stuck on something like a statement of work proposal, think again...

I was struggling to organize my ideas and turn my thoughts on how I could add value to this organization into clear statements.

I tried to push through. Move faster. Get it done. Wasn't helping...

Through that experience, I was reminded of an "ism" I've spoken on often and embraced throughout my professional career.

"Slow down to speed up."

Faster isn't always better.

In fact, I find it rarely is.

I've found that the saying "slow down to speed up" is accurate more times than not—and when it comes to growth and scaling an organization, it rings even more true.

As counterintuitive as it may seem, you're organization's growth will likely speed up if you do a few intentional things to slow down first.

Today, I'll share a few ways you can "slow down" within your day-to-day work to "speed up" your team or organization's success.

Slown down to sit with the problem.

So often, we immediately jump from "we have a problem" to "what's the quickest solution?".

Why? Well, because it feels like we're moving faster.

The quicker we can identify a problem and come up with a solution, the quicker we can get back on track to reaching our goals, right?

Not so fast...

When we quickly move from identifying a problem -> implementing a solution we miss a really valuable opportunity to slow down by asking "why?".

I like to call this "sitting with the problem."

Why does this particular problem/roadblock exist? Is there something else causing the problem we're experiencing? What is the root cause behind it? What's the value of solving it? Is there an opportunity cost to not solving it?

When we don't take the time to sit with a problem, we miss opportunities to go upstream and uncover the underlying causes of the issues we're attempting to address.

When we uncover and address the underlying issues, we allow ourselves to speed up in the long run by creating thorough solutions.

Sometimes, when we slow down to dissect the problem, we realize there's an opportunity to address the issue in a completely new way...

Slown down to whiteboard a solution.

So often, we make bandaid-level "fixes" to issues.

"We've always done it this way so let's just fix the surface-level issue and keep moving forward."

From my experiences leading an organization and in the advisory work I do, the process of sitting with the problem can lead to the realization that the best "fix" to the situation would be to re-design it from scratch.

Throw out the current solution and design a new one.

Will it cause us to move slower in the short term? Most likely, yes.

And what's the cost of continuing to put patches on things because "it's the way we've always done them"? I'd argue it can be significant.

What gradually feels like small issues popping up here and there can suddenly amount to a much bigger problem when the underlying issue is finally exposed.

Whiteboarding a solution means designing it from scratch.

"If we were to build a completely different approach from the ground up that addressed these issues, what would we do?"

You'd be amazed at what you can come up with by doing this simple exercise.

I've led teams that have come up with completely new ideas on how to structure departments, create new sales processes and design team member development initiatives from this whiteboarding exercise.

In the end, these types of initiatives contributed to the organization's rapid growth—all because we took the time to slow down first.

Slow down to create a strategy.

Just last week, I was engaging in a strategy session with a group I am advising.

We were discussing the vision for where the organization was headed and as is often the case, people started jumping right to tactics.

"Let's invest more into our people development." "How will we increase this revenue stream?" "What can we do to improve our client satisfaction?"

It's easy to jump right to plans and tactics—staying on the dancefloor.

It's hard to think big picture and get clear on the value the organization is providing in the marketplace—getting to the balcony.

Many CEOs believe the only important thing is to hit their numbers—think of this mindset as being analogous to keeping a foot on the gas and moving fast.

While financial results are critical, they are not an "OR" to being aligned with strategy.

In fact, if you focus too much on short-term financial results, you often sacrifice the long-term sustainable benefits of being aligned to strategy.

Financial results are an "AND" to being on strategy.

Execute an effective strategy and financial results will follow.

Think of it this way:

Well-executed plans (may) deliver immediate results.

Well-executed strategies likely deliver sustainable, intentional results.

By taking your foot off the gas to design and document and well-thought-out strategy, you are likely to accelerate and increase your success in the long run.

Slow down to get clear on where you are going and why and you'll be on a path to speed up your growth and success in the long run.

Where do you need to slow down?

As an action item, I encourage you to identify one of the opportunities to slow down that I've mentioned in this email and dedicate time to it this week.

It can feel counterintuitive to take a foot off the gas and yet I continue to find that slowing down often leads to speeding up in the long run.

It can lead to greater results that often occur faster. What's not to like about that?

That proposal I mentioned I was stuck on?

I took time to slow down. Rather than "pushing through", I took time to clear my desk, set my phone aside, sit in the problem, and get clear on the strategy I wanted to employ with this prospective client.

When I sat in the problem, it became clear I was missing an important component of how I was presenting the proposal.

With new clarity, I made some changes and finished it—likely quicker and more effectively than I would have without taking time to slow down.

So, where do you need to slow down? If we're not intentional about dedicating time to focus on slowing down, we'll miss the opportunity to speed up in a meaningful way.

Slow down to speed up. Trust me, it's worth it.

With intention,
Alan D Whitman