One of the most watched videos online in the last few years is Louis CK on the old Conan O'Brien Show discussing the fact that we are the most technologically advanced era in history yet we’re miserable. Our collective impatience has gotten worse.He covers wi-fi, ATMs, the miracle of human flight, and more. When using smartphones, we wonder why the signal is down or why it's taking so long to send a message. Louis says; “Give it a second! It has to go to space! What, the speed of light is no longer fast enough for you?” Been there? Done that?
C’mon Hurry Up!
His commentary points to a topic we discussed here recently. We have less patience than a three year waiting for her ice cream. We want it now, we want it to work, and we we may even look for a shortcut.
You see it with marketing campaigns that don’t garner instant results, new hires who aren’t up to speed in their first week, careers that aren’t moving as fast as we’d like, customers who don’t sign right away.
We're All The Same
I recently made a major purchase that took me three months to decide on. I’ve had prospects who have taken longer to get to a no or not right now. We want others to move fast, but we’re not always happy to reciprocate. Decades from now, we'll be complaining the newly invented gadget isn't working properly.
This isn't an era or technology issue. And it's often worse when you look to business culture and leadership. But we can learn to harness our impatience by managing realistic expectations before we begin and take breaks for perspective. We can have more open collaboration and look at how we can positively affect the situation rather than continuing to hope the situation morphs to our wishes.
Now if I could only get this stupid phone to work!
Kneale Mann
cbc
