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Zachary Aldwin Milkshake in the Boardroom
“Slow moving traffic please keep left.” That is the sign that should be on the dual carriageways that now exit Harare. There is nothing more frustrating than travelling down a dual carriageway and meeting a car that is moving at 20 kilometres an hour in the right hand lane.
It interrupts one’s flow. It is even worse if you meet two such cars travelling side by side making it impossible to overtake.

I had such an experience during this weekend which made me think that there is a good case for Government to make drivers licences temporary and compelling drivers to retake their tests every 20 years just to make sure that they do not forget the basics.

This is the same with business. Some projects naturally fall into the slow lane while others have an incredibly fast turnaround.

Others take a little bit of both. Take this article for example. It is fast lane stuff as far as the writing goes.

Every week it takes me a good hour or so of typing to produce the written aspect of this column preferably with plenty of time to spare before my deadline.

Then I pull back into the slow lane of building up for the following article, replying to your emails, researching new content, tossing ideas around.

You need to know which lane you are in. You need to realise when to change lanes in a project.

I have heard people pitch ideas with the punch and enthusiasm that make them look like fast lane stuff.

Most will be looking for the quick turnaround, hoping to get the income they desperately need as soon as possible.

They gloss over the unfinished underlying requirements of the slow lane stuff that needs to be in place before hand.

I have made that mistake before. I have written previously about marketing an online project before having a functional website, web design in this case was slow lane stuff (well slower than I thought anyway).

Having the wrong lane hurt my credibility, and I ended up with a bunch of hurt and frustrated clients.

The other side of the coin is giving someone a simple, quick task and having them procrastinate over it.

Taking a day with what should take an hour. Having someone promise to deliver a quick service (“we will have your car back today sir”, “your printing will be ready at lunch time”) and then fail to show up with it on time without meaningful apology and solution.

Here are a few tips to avoid ending up in the wrong lane. Recognise which lane you need to be in. A sedan can move faster than a 10 tonne truck, it just cannot carry as much.

An article is easier to get through than a book, it just cannot hold as much information. As Seth Godin puts it ‘You cannot be both the bullwhip and the bulldozer’.

They are both great at what they do, both highly effective at what they do, but they however cannot fill the same role. Choose what you want to be and stick with it.

Plan your journey ahead. Familiarise yourself with the road. I did two trips out of town this last month.

One was on a road I rarely use, the other on one that I used to travel every week for about 20 years.

I found myself driving differently. On the one I had no idea what was coming up, it was an adventure as I never knew if the road over the horizon was curved or straight.

On the other I found myself pre-empting the terrain, I geared up to overtake early because I knew that a safe stretch of tar was just around the bend.

Always try to find out where you are going, it allows you to switch lanes better if you need to.

Even if it’s a road that you have never travelled on keep your head up and focus beyond the car in front of you, a little preparation is better than none at all.

Know when to shift gears. This ties in with planning. Certain key points in your project require a different pace akin to overtaking.

This may involve different managing and leadership styles and a push with staff motivation. These times can also be times of increased stress and emotion; performing a tricky overtaking manoeuvre before the oncoming traffic gets to you can make your passengers a little jumpy.

Be courteous to other drivers. No one likes an idiot driver. Respect which lane others are in. Sometimes you need assistance from someone who is in the other lane or you need to serve someone in the other lane.

Respect their pace, be clear about what you can offer them and the time lines involved. Do not be a tortoise in hares clothing. Under-promise and over-deliver.

A friend of mine used to hate driving to South Africa for a holiday. It would take him half the holiday to recover from the drive and then spend the other half psyching up for the return trip.

It all changed when he made the drive part of the holiday, he would break it up with stays in hotels, take an extra day to get there. He learnt to enjoy the experience and had better holidays as a result. Enjoy the journey.

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