Inertia Rules OK ! - Jo Haigh

Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow – not a dance routine sadly, more a symptom of the decision making process across everything from the banking community to executives in meetings about strategic change.

Being able to make a decision is a critical skill for directors and managers alike.  Making the right decision being ideal, naturally, but making a decision at all in the first place is critical.  The procrastination and inertia I am seeing is more than frustrating, it is dangerous and has got a horrendous domino effect across multiple industries.

With change comes fear and caution, understandably, but must it always bring everything to a stop?

My own experience says sometimes it is actually quite valuable just to take one route in a timely manner rather than procrastinating for so long so all routes are shut.  I am not suggesting a blind gamble but, rather, stay focused and disciplined. 

Nor am I suggesting that you can’t change direction if circumstances require it, not at all, but, for goodness sake, doing nothing is rarely either sensible or viable, it is just easy!

The comment “state of play” reminds me of a grant application process, something I have had to deal with on numerous occasions for companies over the years.

My experience goes as follows:

  • state your needs and requirements and rationale;
  • provide substantial costings and outcomes;
  • don’t embark on any actions whatsoever that could endanger the award; and
  • then submit and wait and wait and wait and wait ad nauseam for a response.

In the meantime shear frustration means either:

  • you drop the initiative;
  • you find an alternative route to get to your aim; or
  • someone else, with resources you don’t have, beats you to the end game and you miss the boat.

Of course, grants are very often supported by the public purse and the process must be visible and certainly should not to be seen as open invitation to secure funds for an unworthy cause  but why, oh why, is the application process frankly so damned slow and complex?

“There has to be a better way”, as Mr Dyson (vacuum cleaner inventor) so eloquently put it.  He found one and continues to introduce even more innovative ideas, some work some don’t.  Those that don’t just make him more determined to find a way to make them work – every failure bringing him nearer to a new success.

I would like to ban ineffective procrastination as part of my own personal election manifesto – I commend it to the house.

Jo Haigh
Head of Corporate Finance for MGR
www.mgr.co.uk
Jo.haigh@mgr.co.uk
0844 826 2851 / 0207 644 9674 / 07850 475878
http://www.linkedin.com/in/johaigh