Is being fast always good? In this video Craig argues that we have been seduced into thinking that the answer is “yes;” but that answer is wrong. We are seduced by urgency but it’s usually a false seduction.
Craig has made another video on this topic called Fast or Good? and he has also written three one-page Tips related to this: Incrementally, Last Minute Decision Making and Reflective pause.
This video has captions. To see them, click CC on the video screen.
Here’s what Craig says in the video
Hi everybody. Hey it’s Craig Freshley here.
These days when somebody sends me something I can reply immediately. Somebody sends me a text message on my phone, an email on my computer, a comment on my Facebook page; I’ve got this sense that I should reply immediately! But I think that this growing expectation for immediate response is overrated and gets us in a lot of trouble.
Would you rather be right or would you rather be fast? These days there is a sense that it’s better to be fast. We are seduced by this notion that fast is good. That quick is the right way to be. But I’m resisting that.
Okay, sometimes it is best to be fast. But not very often. In fact, a lot of times I have tried to be fast and I have said something or did something that I regret. I think that this is especially true in group dynamics. When we have the ability to say something quickly to a whole group of people we often regret it.
Sometimes we’re in a group dynamic situation and we carry this “internet ethic of quick response” into the sense that we have to make an immediate group decision. A lot of times when we make fast group decisions we regret them, we have to undo them, and it actually takes more time and effort because we made a quick decision than it would’ve if we had taken our time and made a slower more thoughtful decision.
We complain a lot about our government not being able to make quick decisions and we complain a lot about our groups; the meetings that we have to go to, unable to make quick decisions. Yet we also complain a lot about the bad decisions that our governments and our groups make.
I’m not saying that we should always be slow or that we should be slow just to be slow, but what I am saying is let’s pause and really consider if every reaction, if every decision, needs to be made as fast as we have the ability to make it.
Thanks for listening everybody.
