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“The most critical aspect of commitment is that it can not be manufactured quickly. It must be carefully cultivated and cared for, just as a tree can only come from the careful nurturing of a seed.”
― John Jantsch, The Commitment Engine
When I think of entrepreneurs I rarely think of them as patient. That is partly for biographical reasons. I’m not prone to patience. Action? Yes. Moving quickly without all the facts? Yep! Starting something or innovating with little forethought? Guilty.
I’m part of a coaching program that encourages the use of the Kolbe profile, a test that measures how people prefer to act. It’s well worth your time to check it out, but without going into all the details, my profile is what they call a “Quick Start.”
“Hi, my name is Kevin and I act before I think.” And yet …
There’s no shortcut to an Oak tree. Growing Oaks takes time. It can’t be rushed. I’m sitting under one now as I write this in my back yard. It is over 100 feet tall and almost all of that growth came long before I ever arrived on the scene 20 years ago.
Likewise, there’s no shortcut to shared commitment. Growing commitment takes time. It can’t be rushed.
But the good news is shared commitment can be cultivated. So while our part in growing commitment is dependent on many factors we can’t control, the few that are in our control are very important. We plant seeds. Idea seeds. We share vision, painting pictures of a desirable future. We invite co-workers to join us and investors to buy in. And then we wait. We wait to see the response. We water it by sharing it over and over. We protect it by clarifying the vision and the invitation. We make sure that it passes from person to person without getting skewed like a game of telephone.
And we do the work. We experiment and create demonstration plots. We verify and adjust on the fly. We patiently tweak and try again. We fail as fast as possible so we can learn where the weak points are, and that reveals where we need to make adjustments. And simultaneously we celebrate even the smallest successes and patiently point out where things aren’t working.
I’m right in the middle of this process now as my business, Center City Collision, is trying to dramatically reduce the amount of time cars spend in our shop. I am convinced that half our jobs can be done on a 24-hour clock. I’m talking about it. We’re experimenting on small jobs. We’re succeeding. And we’re failing. And the failures are just as important at this stage so we can keep tweaking it. Finding paint that dries faster. Making sure all the parts are at the shop before we get started. We’re creating the recipe and taste testing as we go. Commitment is grown as we succeed. Learning spikes when we don’t.
But again, this all takes time and patience. In other words, all the things a “Quick Start” would rather avoid. However, I’m convinced the universe was not made by an impatient “Quick Start,” nor does it yield to one. It is I who must yield over and over to the long slow march of progress. There is no other way. I’m learning this the hard way. But I am learning.
What shortcuts are tempting you right now?
Photo (Flickr CC) by Kevin Dooley
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Latest posts by Kevin Rains (see all)
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