Procrastination comes in many forms. One of those ways involves simply doing too much preparation before putting something into action. In working with businesses, sports teams, and other groups, I have often used the quote “Proper preparation prevents poor performance” or “Proper preparation promotes positive performance.” However, there is always the potential problem of having too much of anything. Too much food can be bad for the figure. Too much walking or running can be bad for your knees. Too much preparation… well, you get the picture. Country music artist Rita Coolidge said, “Oftentimes opportunity knocks, but by the time you push the chain, push the deadbolt, disengage both locks, and turn off the burglar alarm, it’s already too late.”
When I sat on the sidelines at football games, I heard coaches warn their running backs, “Go up the field!” And then when runners are tackled while running “east or west” instead of “north or south,” the coaches get upset, call the runners to the bench and say, “You have a decision to make! run through the backfield all night!” Or they can say, “Stop running around and turn up the volume!”
As I mentioned in a previous column, I delivered my keynote address A Strategy for Winning at the Department of Homeland Security’s National Conference for Border Patrol Chiefs in July 2006. Prior to my speech, Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar urged 60 sector chiefs and others at the El Paso conference to keep the path of progress as clear as possible and would work to do the same. Engaged in a great task and ongoing challenge, he encouraged conference participants: “Don’t let process get in the way of progress.” As I reflect on Chief Aguilar’s words now, I am reminded that this is good advice for all of us, regardless of our fields of activity.
Research by Dr. Michael Tushman of the Harvard Business School and Dr. Mary Benner of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania shows that companies often sacrifice progress for process and lose out to their competitors who spend more time and effort moving forward and less time and effort figuring out how to move. Additional research by Dr. Robert Cole, Professor Emeritus at the University of California-Berkley Haas School of Business, corroborated the claim. One example he gives in his book, Recovering from Success, is of a company that failed to make progress on some things. The company’s reasoning was that certain items and procedures needed to undergo additional process management, which Dr. Cole reveals was unnecessary. As a result of the delay, the company missed and missed a golden opportunity to be a market leader. Dr. Cole says that “process versus progress” was at the heart of the problem.
Of course, the government is notorious for dealing with red tape, going through numerous channels, and engaging in all sorts of processes before any progress is made. Chief Aguilar is well aware of this. He knew in July 2006, and he knows it today, that his work is done for him. But what about us? As we survey the various things we are involved in, what can we do to move things forward? This might be a good time to inspect your stakes and see how you can “climb up the field” instead of running from “sideline to sideline.”
The great American writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) wrote: “Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.” It’s easy to get bogged down in the process. That’s why Principle Nine in A Winning Strategy is “Do it now!”