Slow is Fast | Happy Thanksgiving (little early)

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln.

Slow is fast isn’t a new concept The Navy Seals believe that slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Unfortunately, we humans seem to struggle, especially at work, to implement this concept. Core to our challenge pivots on the dichotomy between “knowing” and “doing.”

Knowing requires understanding; Doing involves action.

In today’s rise and grind toxic productivity, “slow” is saddled with a horrible public relations firm. Many, especially business leaders, are allergic to the notion. They would prefer to think about failing fast, first to market, and do it right now.

I get it; I was there and used these terms. They were sexy and played well in the executive suite and with shareholders. I love nothing more than getting shi(f)t done. But slow is fast, along with JT, is bringing sexy back.

The challenge with today’s Zoomathons and slow is fast resistance is that we’ve over-indexed for speed. And don’t we love to over-index and over-correct, at least in The States? It’s edgy and gets attention in our noisy world.

But it’s ineffective over the long run because it leads to poor decision making, shi(f)ty cultures, fragmented communication, useless feedback, disengaged employees, and ultimately inferior results.

In a 2010 Harvard Business Review article “Need Speed? Slow Down,” by Jocelyn R. Davis and Tom Atkinson found:

“In our study of 343 businesses (conducted with the Economist Intelligence Unit), the companies that embraced initiatives and chose to go, go, go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating profits than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track. What’s more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up” improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating profits over a three-year period.”

Slow is fast is about mindset and behavior. For new behaviors to blossom, we have to think. Going slow is about being thoughtful with the things that matter most. It helps us to move quickly and create a brighter future over time.

This week’s video is about turtles and tips on going slow to go fast, like pausing, breathing, and reflecting in our communities and conference rooms so we can make 2022 the best year yet.

But before we flip into the new year, we have the holidays, and the awesome sauce starts early with Pause Breathe Reflect.

Today through Nov 29th, we’ve got you, and everything is 25% in our new store.

Whether you plan to shop…

Today

What’s on our Thanksgiving list? Monday

Pick Up The Turkey Tuesday

Wait, who’s picking up Grandma Wednesday

I’m so full Thursday

Black Friday

Small Business Saturday

The First Day of Hanukkah, or

Cyber Monday, we’ve got you covered.

Pause Breathe Reflect is your wearable reminder that slow is fast. It’s environmentally friendly – each PBR Tee saves 145 gallons of water, reduces 4kg of CO2, uses an average of 6 recycled plastic bottles, and is as soft as butter. It’s also made in the USA.

Whether or not you place PBR under your tree or near your menorah, we love you. This year, we invite you to shop small and from places that provide a living wage and treat their employees like humans.

We know that Amazon is fast, but sometimes the best gifts help us to slow down. And if money is tight this year, we encourage you to gift your time, attention, and love.

To paraphrase, Maya Angelo, people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, they may even forget what you buy, but they will not forget how you made them feel. Let’s make people feel loved this year. That’s maybe the best gift ever.

Until next week, slow down and have fun storming the castle!