Sustaining An Organization - part #2

Slowing Down to Go Fast

Second, if we seek to sustain the organization through challenging times, we need to better understand the commonly used, leadership phrase: “We are going to slow down in order to go fast.” Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao in their book, Scaling Up Excellence: Getting To More Without Settling For Less (Crown Business, 2014) shared this insight when they wrote that leaders need to “Slow down to scale faster - and better - down the road.” On the surface, this makes sense, but the challenge is how to apply it in a world where it feels like everything is accelerating. 

Here is where unpacking the phrase becomes very important. Sutton and Rao note that slowing down to speed up is based on an understanding of the difference between System 1 thinking and System 2 thinking. As they explain, “Learn when and how to shift gears from automatic, mindless, and fast modes of thinking (System 1) to slow taxing, logical, deliberative, and conscious modes (System 2); sometimes the best advice is, “Don’t just do something, stand there”.”

When I help leaders “slow down,” I point out that as challenging times become complicated or complex, and sometimes they are both, they often get caught in cognitive fusion, namely they become overly identified with their thoughts and experiences, leading them into a sense of being stuck and entangled in them. Leaders in this kind of situation have a hard time separating themselves from their thoughts. In simple terms, they zoom in and get stuck. 

However, if they want to do System 2 thinking, they need to engage in cognitive defusion. Here, they need to distance themselves from their thoughts in order to gain a greater perspective on how to proceed. Jim Collins and Morten Hansen in their book, Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck - Why Some Thrive Despite Them All (HarperCollins, 2011), called this zooming out before zooming in. As they explain, “When [leaders] sense danger, they immediately zoom out to consider how quickly a threat is approaching and whether it calls for a change in plans. Then they zoom in, refocusing their energies into executing objectives…. Rapid change does not call for abandoning disciplined thought and disciplined action. Rather it calls for upping the intensity to zoom out for fast yet rigorous decision making and zoom in for fast yet superb execution.” This choice to do System 2 thinking, i.e. zooming out, gives a leader the ability to sense changing conditions and to respond effectively. 

I like to call this the power of the pause. It is a moment to gather your thoughts, and to truly listen to what is being said and shared. And in this process, you center yourself before and, at times, in the middle of action. This level of cognitive slowing down gives a leader the ability to make better decisions rather than reactive decisions. It also provides them time and space to consider the impact and precedence that may or may not be taking place as the pace of change accelerates or becomes more complex or complicated. In short, once people understand that slow is related to thinking, not action, the whole phrase, “We are going to slow down in order to go fast,” makes sense. 

To be continued on Wednesday. 

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change