In the blink of an eye

I'm about to finish reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. I bought the book right after it was published, but postponed reading it because of some negative comments I heard. I read so much and feel like I have so much more that I need to read that those derogatory comments dissuaded me from picking up the book until recently.

I can understand how the book might turn some people off. The whole concept of "thin-slicing" and the assertion that people make lots of decisions in the blink of an eye would make a lot of people uncomfortable.

In a conversation with an engineer the other day, he spoke of a lesson he learned as a young Second Lieutenant in Vietnam. His grisseled "old" Gunnery Sergeant asked him what he would do if surrounded by the enemy. He responded that he'd assess the enemy's position, look for a weakness and then attack at that point. The Sergeant responded "No". You attack whatever is in front of you to break out of being surrounded. Because every moment that you wait, the enemy tightens the circle and reduces your options.

There are times for analysis and there are times for action.

The time for analysis is before "battle". Once the action commences it's time for quick decisive action based upon knowledge accumulated before hand.

I bring this up, because I believe it's important to be clear on the criteria you use to make decisions before you're in a crisis.

John Wooden , the great UCLA basketball coach, used to say, "Be quick, but don't hurry."

That seems like an appropriate corellary to this conversation.

If you know what's important you can act decisively when necessary.

I used to teach high school students in Sunday School. I'd ask them to think about their values and what was important to them. Because it was going to be too late to think when they were in the back seat of a car and someone was making them an offer that in a less stressful situation they might reject.

I wish some of our corporate leaders had sat down and taken the time to think about what mattered to them, before they made some of the decisions they've made.

So, let me encourage folks to take a little time to think about what's important to you, to your family, to your business (job), to your community, to your country. That's a lot of thinking, isn't it? :^) Think about the criteria you use for making decisions. What's important to you?

So, when the time comes and it's critical that you make those blink of an eye decisions; you're making sound decisions based upon the foundation of what you truly value.