No Time To Waste

To decide or drift; on how to make either way intentional.

A team I was once on was struggling to shape its strategy. There was a lot of resistance to change and highlighting constraints outside of our control were used to procrastinate. Instead of working directly and deliberately with the context we were in, the process kept being prolonged.

One caveat to share was that this was a bottom-up process and not a typical top-down one. I think that’s important detail to share as it shapes the story.

Grabbing coffee and passing the CEO one day, they said to me and another colleague, go in the room and don’t come out until you have it.

And it’s stuck with me since.

We didn’t do what the CEO advised, and if I’m honest when looking back, I am not quite sure we got to a true strategic decision in the end.

Things just eventually played out. We went back to the work. Some team members moved on. Things outside of our control continued but enough inbound inquiries came through that allowed the status quo to persist.

Looking back I think we even hit budge…