Concept
One of Bob Johnson’s principles for managing effectively in unfamiliar places is what he calls patient impatience.18 Bob wanted to get things done correctly and quickly. The faster one shows results, the faster the hemorrhaging would stop. When working in a new environment or a different culture, one can expect that (a) there might be a learning curve and (b) the host culture might not view time the same way one’s home culture does. So Johnson advises being impatient for results but to expect the need to be patient while one’s colleagues learn different ways of doing things and one’s self learns to adapt to local time rhythms.
There is a similar principle in the martial arts. One may know how to make a middle block, for example, but if you block too soon OR too late, bad things happen. Timing is critical. One must be in tune with one’s opponent in order to compete successfully. Forcing things to go faster than they otherwise might can lead to disaster.
So, here is another paradox. (There are so many, yes?) Be impatient to show results and at the same time, be respectful of the host culture, your colleagues, their VABEs regarding time, and nudge but not faster than can be tolerated. Yelling at slow colleagues in a different culture is likely to make things worse as people move into passive aggression on the Buy-In scale.
Remember that your frustration or irritation with the slowness of things is a function of your VABEs about the way the world should be. Clearly, it is not that way all around the globe.
Example
The Japanese culture, for example, is famous for going slow, slow, slow, and then BAM let’s GO! In that culture, building long-term relationships is important and that takes time. Meanwhile, people are touching base with suppliers, employees, discussing and anticipating how the new approach will work. Once all of that checking is done, once the dating is over, then they are ready to go and begin producing. North Americans often attempt to go fast in making the deal and then are not prepared for the execution that naturally follows.
Diagram
Challenge
1. What irritates you? What is the underlying VABE? Could you adjust that VABE?
2. Describe times in which you have been hurried beyond your preferences. What happened? What did you learn from that?
3. Describe times in which you have been forced to go slower than you want. What happened? What did you learn from that?
4. What happens when you stretch a rubber band farther than it will permit? Hurts, doesn’t it?
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