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- P r o f e s s i o n a l _ D e v e l o p m e n t -

I sometimes think of him as I work with clients who are trying to "go fast" in their businesses. "Measure twice, cut once." Where did that proverb come from? Certainly not from an inordinate love of measuring. Indeed, most carpenters are eager to get to the cutting, the assembling, the nailing. No, it comes from a deep experiential understanding of the serious negative consequences of undue haste. For the carpenter, that could mean wasted effort, wasted materials and rework. In short, the three things a good carpenter fears most: delay, increased costs and poor quality.

But wait a minute -- these are also the three things present day executives want to avoid. Could Granddad have something to say to Bill Gates? Let's look again at some major causes of delay and increased costs in business:

• wasted effort (unnecessary work, work not leading to desired outcomes)
• rework
• office politics
• poor quality
• mistakes in strategy
• poor communication (ambiguity, misunderstanding, lack of information)
• unilateral design and action (leading to misalignment with customers and other stakeholders)
• missed opportunities for innovation

There is much that could be said about each of these, but one thing they all have in common: they are exacerbated, or sometimes even caused, by the error and imprecision that comes from going too fast without the right tools.

A few years ago our firm consulted with a major insurance company. Three years earlier, the CEO had seen a need for proactive change and had hired another consulting firm to help his executive team develop a strategic plan to move his company into the new world of HMO's and "managed care." The last three years of this CEO's life had been spent galvanizing his company around this new strategic plan. We remember the day one of us sat in his office discussing his critical business issues. He had just discovered that the definition of "managed care" he had always had in his mind was very different from the definition of "managed care" used by the consultants who had helped write his strategic plan. As a result he and his company had just spent the last three years and well over ten million dollars going in the wrong direction. In an attempt to "go fast" and stay ahead of the industry, he and his strategic planning consultants had co-created an immense delay in the company's forward progress. Measure once, cut twice.

On a less dramatic scale, this pattern plays out daily in companies where managers are being told to "go fast," do more with less, have a "can do" attitude, and above all "just do it." A good manager is seen as someone who has "a bias for action." I disagree. A good manager is someone who has a bias for effective action. And as the Scottish essayist and historian, Thomas Carlyle once wrote, "Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight."

The insight Carlyle wants comes from knowing when to slow down and "measure twice." It comes from building into each management process and practice concrete ways of checking for accuracy and completeness of understanding. It comes from being open to learning now instead of later. It comes from having efficient, reliable methods for collaborative problem solving -- the kind of problem solving that taps into the knowledge, creativity and commitment of all the stakeholders. It comes from making space in one's life for focused reflection and seeing the big picture.

John R. Snyder is Vice-President of Collaborative Action Associates, Round Rock, TX. Contact him at (512) 218-4870 or at jsnyder@pobox.com