Taking a Long-Term Perspective

 Having spent over half of my post college working career working in the industrial distribution business, I found the prevailing culture among the rank and file employees to be one of survival.  From my experience and conversations with people in other industries this experience is not radically different.

In economically perfectly competitive businesses such as distribution, there are normally multiple outlets for essentially the same products.  This makes it exceedingly difficult to differentiate yourself.  And now in the age of internet commerce and increased information availability, it is even more difficult for providers of similar products to separate themselves from the pack.

The short-term perspective driven by the competitive nature of industry causes many daily mistakes.  However, there have been some benefits to the customer in the form of rapid responses to requests for quotes, more rapid technical responses, prompt deliveries, product innovations and more efficient supply programs.

The felt need for instant responses from the suppliers causes people burnout, lost profit margins, lost business, inaccurate responses, compromised integrity and strife inside the company and outside the firm with all levels of stakeholders.

There are several ways to combat the pressure you may feel from the need to compress as much activity into as short amount of time as possible.  Number one is to do the most thorough, quality job possible in the time allowed and trust God to provide for your well-being.  This type of attitude and conduct will honor God and significantly help in reducing time pressured errors.

Another way to combat the stress and errors driven by a short-term viewpoint is to get a firm grasp on the long term impact of your decisions.  You must ask yourself if the value of delivering an unqualified technical response, a poorly researched bid, a partially developed product, a poorly written report or unprepared sales call is worth the risk.

These are just a few examples of rushing through a process in business that demands a quality effort.  I’m sure you can think of many others in your area of expertise.  Simply stated, the risk of losing your integrity, reputation, concern for others and business opportunities is in no way compensated for by the time gained by cutting corners.

Try this proof of short term versus a long-term perspective by grabbing a calculator and performing some simple math.

Fifty two weeks a year yield 260 working days.  Subtract 9 paid holidays and 10 days of vacation to yield 241 days.  Then begin to determine what percentage a week, a day, four hours and one hour represent as a percentage of that working year.

One Week = (5/241)	.02074 %	Or 2.1%     year.
One Day   = (1/241)	.00414 %	Or .004 %  year
4 Hours = (4/1928)	.00207 %	Or .002 %  year
1 Hour = (1/1928)	.0005186 %	Or .0005% year

Then begin to determine the time required to get the job done properly versus the rushed job that was perceived as necessary.  Look at the chart or perform the calculation yourself.  What appeared to be a true crisis of time is in effect just a small fraction of the time available to accomplish the task.  This exercise will help you get a perspective on time when you are bogged down in a tedious but necessary task.  In addition, the proper amount of time can be allocated to truly important tasks.

Finally, step back and look at the importance of the task as if it took place one year ago.  With that perspective, what impact will the completion of the task have on the bottom line?  I am not recommending that workers ignore any task that does not make their personal priority list, but rather that tasks are given a level of importance commensurate with their long-term importance.

 Yes, haste truly does make waste.  From poor designs, scrapped products, wasted time, and damaged reputations, the consequences run the gamut of tangible and intangible costs.