Faster Isn’t Always Better: Finding the Right Speed for Success

I’ve heard this maxim many times in my career. Along with, “do more with less”, “go slow to go fast” is a stalwart of leaders around the globe. But what does it mean?

To me, it always brought images of the tortoise and the hare. The hare goes slow, but wins the race. But the message in the story for me was never “go slow to go fast”, it was always “consistency wins”.

I had the perfect example of “go slow to go fast” this week and it made me reflect on where I can introduce more slowness into my work, to help me speed up.

When there just isn’t time

The project was under a lot of time pressure. The deadline was approaching and was in jeopardy. The sponsor decided that the team needed to go faster. That meant quicker decision making cycles.

The Sponsor had never been seen to work so quickly. Questions fired, support asked for, responded to not just same-day, but same-hour. Maybe the team wouldn’t have been up against the deadline had this been the cadence prior to now.

And then it went wrong.

The decision that was made in haste was re-made. Twice.

What’s the cost of this decision being wrong?

The cost of re-making the decision twice was not huge in dollar terms. But when you’re up against a deadline, the opportunity cost was significant.

For about a week - the amount of time it took for the decision to be made 3 times - the team worked on things that they threw away. The team wasted a week.

Some of the decisions had been communicated wider than the team. The business unit probably spent half a day each on something which needed changing.

Collectively, about 450 person-hours were spent on activities that were thrown away.

Had the decision been made slower, had the decision been made once and stuck, the project would have been further along the road. This was a great example of going slow to go fast.

When you’re looking at a decision to be made, ask yourself what the cost is if the decision is wrong. How significant is that cost, given where you are in the project? If the cost is going to be one you don’t want to pay, is this a time when it could pay to go slower?

Be clear on when you need an answer

As Project Managers, it’s on you to give your Sponsor the information they need so they can slow down in the right places. We need to

• be clear on when an answer is needed by
• be clear on the consequence if an answer is late
• be clear on what we will be doing when we have an answer

The Sponsor didn’t help by having a default mode of going fast. The Project Manager compounded the situation by not providing the Sponsor the information that could have helped them see there was advantage in going slower.

As I look at the decisions I am waiting for, I am re-evaluating which ones will pay to go slower. And I’ve added “Thinking Fast and Slow”, Daniel Kahneman, onto my Christmas reading list. It’s a few years since I last read it.

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