Doing….Anything

Posted: April 19th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Comments Off on Doing….Anything

“Don’t let your ideas stew for too long before moving into action.”—Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter

Last week we rolled out a project at work that had been the major focus of my professional life for the last few months, and had been needed for the last decade that I worked there.  Being able to create a new product that solved the problems everyone had been having for 20+ years was fantastic and draining.

Admittedly, if I’ve been snarky about the concepts of democratic processes and meetings and committees lately, it’s because I was fighting battles to see this project through.

Now that it’s done, though, I look back and think “Did we REALLY wait all these years because of petty in-fighting and lack of leadership?”.

Having been on-board with this project ever since I gave a presentation about our future business a year ago, I know pretty much everything that went into it, and am baffled by:

  1. how fast we were able to execute it, and
  2. how long we wallowed around thinking it couldn’t be done.

“The purpose of a strategy is not to come up with the right answers. It’s to enable you to act.”—Frans Johannson, CEO of the Medici group

At the same time, my brain doesn’t naturally turn off it’s project analysis just because this project is completed, so I’ve been in a bit of an “over-drive” lately.

One of the things that has driven absolutely bananas is seeing my colleagues in the same place, the Pit of Nothing Will Ever Change, spending time having meetings and lamenting over minutia.

“We have a strategic plan; it’s called doing things.”—Frans Johannson

In work, just as in life, you need to treat the disease, not the symptoms.  But the first part is just getting up and treating something.  Doing…Anything!

Today is Monday.  You have a choice.

  1. You can get to work and go about your normal countless e-mails and set-up meetings where nothing will get done……..
  2. Or you can use today as the starting line of a new race, hurtling towards whatever it is you really want to get done.

I like the second choice, but I can’t make the decisions for you.

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” – Mahatma Ghandi

(This is Day 26 of the 30 Day Blog Challenge, be sure to check out the other participants at #30DayBC)