Faster Is Not Always Better

Since the tech explosion in the early 2000's he have become increasingly fast thinkers and doers. Now that any answer is just a Google search away, we have become trained to expect results immediately. From the classroom to the work place, people have become accustomed to getting immediate answers for just about any task. This instant gratification we have become accustomed to is usually great for our productivity, but does it actually lead to better work?

For the sake of an example, I currently work as part of a small marketing team for a nationally expanding business. The company, which currently owns about 30 dining and entertainment centers across the country, employs our small team of 10 people who together are responsible for developing and executing a multi-channel, nationwide marketing strategy. Because our numbers are so limited, we need to have quick turnover to be able meet each of our deadlines. My team has been quite adept at meeting all of our deadlines however, as a consequence of much of our rushed work, some mistakes slip through the cracks. Something as small as a broken hyperlink or a mistyped line of a legal disclaimer can have disastrous results for the companies returns. In my case, I could be doing work on our email distribution platform learning as I go with the FAQ posted online. If I were in a particular rush that day, I may opt to skim the FAQ instead of reading the full thing and once I finish drafting out an email, I could hit submit to send it to our database. But wait, this message was a coupon which was supposed to go to a select few people, however I already sent the message for a $20 coupon to all 1 million of our email subscribers. Next thing I know, I'm in the CFOs office being scolded for losing the company thousands of dollars. While nothing this serious has happened to me before, small mistakes occur daily and it makes me wonder, if we just hired 10 more people and slowed down, wouldn't that improve the overall quality of our work?

We all want to be able to work better, faster, but we have to be aware of when we are moving too fast. The brain is a remarkable machine and we are great at adapting to whatever needs need to be met but it also helps to slow down and think deeply about how to solve an issue. This is how our creativity comes out to find unique solutions for particular problems. It allows us to work smarter not harder.