If I have learnt anything at all over the last 30 years of being in business it is this: progress always takes longer than you anticipated.
Why is it that we are so damned impatient? There are most likely a couple of reasons. Probably the first is that we humans are inherently hopeful. We want to believe that our actions have the results that will fulfil our ambitions. We tend to be broadly optimistic. The second is that increasingly we live in an age of high expectation that has become exaggerated due to, what we perceive to be, positive experiences with technology. We’ve all listened to Simon Sinek’s brilliant explanation of what hooks us on social media. Write a post, then wait for the ‘likes’ to get a dopamine hit masked as an instant sense of approval. Through a combination of our own natural tendencies and technology that plays to our weaknesses, we have become inherently impatient. Read on, I’ll make a point in a second.
The issue is that we humans only have one set of core personal characteristics. We do not have the ability to partition our pyschological hard-drives - one for work, one for our personal lives. Our base instincts, formed from our experiences over thousands of years of hunting and gathering, form the rule book for our core guidance systems: the enteric gut brain, the vagus nerve, the amygdala and so on. These are the ancient systems that come to work with us every day and frame our behaviours.
OK. So we humans are the way we are - optimistic pleasure seekers doing what we do with as little effort as possible in order to survive. Set this against the backdrop of what often constitutes corporate success (profitable growth at speed) and it is little wonder that many businesses make decisions geared towards brittle, short-term gains to the detriment of more robust but longer term success. It is one reason why many companies use strategy as wall paper rather than a foundation.
In many ways developing and executing a robust strategy is an esoteric battle against impatience. Strategy’s purpose is to design a long term framework to guide a business towards a measurable vision of success. It is, by nature a complex process that needs to carefully consider, parry and act upon a vast array of moving parts - some known and some that can be reasonably anticipated. Once conceived, it takes time to implement and execute and it is this timeframe that can be rather unpopular. Our underlying human nature often pushes us towards fast decisions that return short-lived gains. In essence, quick decisions (whilst sometimes necessary), can sometimes translate as 2 steps forward and 3 steps back bringing rise to a raft of recuperative measures that distract us further from steady, yet solid, progress.
Senior management must have the courage to rebut the temptations of short-termism in exchange for a quick buck, by appraising themselves of the hard facts and cautioning against the consequences of deviating from a well-considered strategic path. This dilemma is felt most acutely by sales leaders and management boards where the pressure to demonstrate constant progress is at its most extreme.
We would do well to remember the story of Icarus, who did not heed the advice of his father and in flying too close to the sun, fell to his death. It is hard to resist the lure of short-term gains, but faced with the consequences there is a very good reason that, in life as in business, patience is a virtue.
For further insights: https://hbr.org/1998/07/how-hardwired-is-human-behavior