The perception of those around us rushing will cause us to take short cuts. When under stress, it will even short cuts the decision of whether to take a short cut!
It is these decisions that we have failed to fully consider that often come back to haunt us; either in creating more work further down the line, or put our colleagues backs up. This is what John Kotter calls a false sense of urgency in his book 'A Sense of Urgency'.
1. So give your colleagues a break and resist the urge to rush into decisions!
You can often spot when people have short cut the consequences of what they are telling you because they use the word 'Just'. They are hiding a massive something by making it sound small with the word 'just'.
"Can you just...?"
"I just want to...?"
The 'J' word can also be used to belittle people when describing something they do or have done. In fact I could only think of one positive use of the word just, relating to justice:
"Is it just to do...?"
2. Whenever you hear yourself using the 'J' word, take a moment to ask yourself whether you really want the outcome that you are asking for, or whether there is a more effective approach.
I'll leave some of the IT consequences for another post...
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