Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

You have met with a group of smart persons. You all worked hard. You decided what to do. Now, do you do it or…

You gathered with a group of smart persons and worked hard. Discussion, question, discussion, alternative, question, answer, do it all over again.

Decision.

How do you take a step back to examine the decision before announcing it?

Bring in an outside consultant? Take a five-minute walk around the block? Count to ten? Ask your mother? Ask your wife? Ask anyone who wasn’t sitting in the five-hour excruciatingly painful meeting where you decided?

Do you intend to do what you say you will do? Can you do what you say you will do? Have you planned the doing? What will it mean if you say one thing and do another?

It is at this point that the blog post writer writes a few brilliant things to answer all these questions. Let’s go with a couple more questions.

• If you do what you decided and it doesn’t work, how much will that cost?

• If you don’t do what you decided, how much will that cost?

Compare the costs. And consider that “cost” does not necessarily mean money.