Stop, look and listen

I was sitting at a traffic light this morning, staring at the red and in my head running through all of the things that the week promises. Thinking about the speed of things and everything in my work and life that’s going on. Harking back to my previous post, thinking about what the right things to do are.

Traffic lights, for all the frustration they may cause (they do me), are actually very important. They’re regulators that force you to stop until it’s your turn to move and the coast is clear. You have to stop. There's no other choice.

In that moment of quiet reflection I was reminded that traffic light regulation applied during the workday is something we could all use some more of.

It’s a fast world. Faster than ever and seemingly, not slowing down. In order to keep up and be the first, most appealing, compelling choice, brands and businesses will often engage in a high-paced race to be that choice, deploying many different things in the attempt to ensure they win.

The risk is in that the individuals running that race (because companies are, after all, really no better than the sum of their people) may fail to stop and pay attention to what’s going on around them.

They can’t because the light is always green.

Consider what might happen if a traffic light was used to control the pace at which things moved in the brand and subsequently, how it responds to the market.

A brand that’s always talking without a story, purpose or reason to, may start to be ignored and become irrelevant. It's lips move but all the customers hear is blah, blah, blah.

The people working the cause may become burned out. Robotic, routine and automatic but if the light is always green then nobody notices, even when the momentum takes them off the road.

Flash the amber and that’s a signal to slow down. It always is, even though the tendency is to speed up and get through. Instead, breathe and welcome the signal to slow down, because that’s where the red light can do its thing.

That’s where you can stop, look, listen and gather. Tune into what’s happening around you. Regroup and analyse what you gather. Go back to where your strategy or plan was devised. Welcome the distraction offered up by the red light.

Use what you gather in the noiseless time between green lights to re-scope that what you’re doing is the right thing the right way.

Be aware that when you're always on the gas, you seriously risk missing the signs that you’re doing something wrong.

Stopping several times a day has the potential to enable individual performance at a higher level and the brand in which whose relevance rest in your hands?

It and you will be stronger.