Faster, better…

A mentor of mine, Galen Workman, cherished the word, “Faster!” As my boss at the time, Galen used it in a serious but friendly way to inspire continuous effort and work output among his charges. Tending to be confidently argumentative I pushed back and said, “Better!” He said, “NO! Faster!”

We compromised on, “Faster, better!!”

I kept those two words close to mind as my career changed and I think they have made a difference. The following is a list of favorite management-oriented slogans that I have shared with others over the years. Almost all of these were swiped from folks that I admired and respected for their knowledge, ability, and entrepreneurial chutzpah. Faster, better is one of those slogans. Thank you Galen   (He really was an inspirational character. Don’t ever tell him I said that though.)

We’re always asked to be faster! The perception is here is never enough time. The faster we go the less difference it seems to make. It’s when you are better that faster really counts. Better means that whatever you do is generally not called into questions. Faster is often not better but is rather misdirected and hastily performed work e.g.  Just because you were faster doesn’t mean you were better. Faster to market, faster to get done, etc. Better means your results excelled over others because you gave your best to whatever you did and that end result reflects better. A better widget if you will. A widget can be anything you want to be.

Problems develop when people cannot compromise and insist only on faster and not insisting on achieving better. The problem is that faster makes you just another, “Me too.” A me-too marketer, salesperson, developer, programmer, writer, whatever. Me too is faceless achievement. Faster meets the objective of getting to market on time but adding better is what actually makes success possible.

That’s where the title of my personal blog comes from. Oh by the way, you can meet Galen chasing his dachshunds even faster at http://www.ozdachs.com!

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