Dateline: January 16, 2015
Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend.
This weekend’s idea comes from a relatively new voice on strategic thinking for IT leaders. Chris Gebhardt, former SWAT and current IT leader, has started a blog, IT Tid-bits about Information Technology. A recent post provided our thought-provoking idea for this week’s post. Building on his experience with SWAT teams, Chris writes,
We borrowed the expression “Slow is smooth; smooth is fast.” from the US Military forces. Basically, everyone wants to move as fast as possible to overcome dangerous situations. However, the only time you can move fast is when you are moving slowly.
He continues with this suggestion,
My advice for anyone dealing with urgent requests, especially for functionality that does not exist in your realm yet, is to slow down. In fact, the one thing you can do quickly is slow down. Take a breath and start asking questions. Why do we need this? What else can we do? What exposures does this create? Have we thought about alternatives?
When you are presented with an urgent request, how do you respond? Does it set off bells and flags for you and your team? How can you slow down to enable yourself and your team to respond better?
That’s a WRAP! Have a nice weekend!
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