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It was Art Basel week in Miami.
The New York Times headline aptly described it as follows: The Art Basel Circus Comes to Town (12/1/21).
The largest A-List art event in the world. There is lots and lots of art, yes. Then there are the parties. Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn at a 175-person dinner benefit. Serena Williams and Marc Anthony at the same event. Alicia Keys leading a guided meditation before performing a 75-minute set in front of 600 art-world insiders in a warehouse. Ricky Martin roaming the halls of Miami Beach’s only gay bar, Twist, at a party thrown by a Spanish fashion house.
And that was just opening night.
Never fear, I am not about to describe my Art Basel adventures. Didn’t have tickets to any of the A-List parties. For a South Florida local like me, Art Basel week means days of traffic gridlock. Inflated prices. A buzzy sense of chaos.
More aptly, an exercise in navigating patience and impatience.
Common wisdom is that patience is a virtue, impatience an Ego run amok.
Impatience is the mark of independence, not of bondage.” ~ poet Marianne Moore
Patience can be hard. Impatience is harder.
Not the self-righteous, I want it right-here-right-now impatience. That’s the easy kind, the one that may have gotten us what we wanted when we were a toddler.
No, I’m thinking of the sort of repetitive impatience that gets triggered in places of work. Impatience with the slow pace of change in your organization. Impatience with processes that don’t work. Impatience with colleagues who never get their stuff done in time. Impatience with questionable ethics. Impatience with glaring incompetence and the same tired excuses for why something cannot be done.
Our daily frustration with individual and systemic mediocrity.
I get it. You’re impatient for change. Impatience with the status quo is the hallmark of an inspired leader. You sometimes feel like you will burst out screaming if things don’t change fast.
Scream at home. When you want to get things done in business, however, focus your impatience.
5 Ways Of Deploying Your Impatience Well
1. Open the Door of Possibility – with Finesse
NOT: What we’re doing right now sucks. I know what will work better.
You may like the language of bluster and bravado. It may feel authentic to you. It really DOES capture exactly how you feel. Dump authentic for a moment and opt for skill and finesse. Invite folks into your point of view – don’t hit them over the head with it.
BUT: It seems we have been struggling with this same dilemma for a while now. I have a few ideas that we may wish to consider.
2. Respect Tradition
NOT: Really, I can’t believe we’re still doing this the way we did it 30 years ago.
Most of us have worked in situations where processes feel arcane. Like, really, who ever thought THIS was a good way of doing business! Work flows inhabit progress. Rituals seem rigid, not nimble, don’t make any sense. Truth is, they likely made sense to someone at some point. Especially when rituals are tied to a company’s core values. If core values and tradition matter where you work, find a way to publicly honor them before you go on the attack!
BUT: I can see why this way of doing things contributed to so many of our early successes. There are some very impressive companies who have found ways of improving how they do things. Let’s see what we can learn from them.
3. Test Your Ideas – BEHIND the Scenes First
NOT: I will bring this up at our next Executive Meeting to make sure everybody is in the same room and hears the same message from me.
Yes, you will have a captive audience. You also run the risk of being labeled a loose cannon or a troublemaker. Before you bring up a potentially explosive topic in a large forum, test it in private 1-1 conversations. Float an idea by a colleague or two. Think of these as casual, low-risk lobbying conversations. Instead of forcing your idea on these colleagues, invite their honest reactions. Pay attention to what they say and what they don’t say. Truly listen. Then decide what to do with your idea.
BUT: I will test my ideas in informal 1-1 conversations to hear what others think and discover if my ideas resonate before I take a bold stand in the “big” meeting.
4. Forge Alliances
NOT: I will take this on as my pet project because nobody here is as passionate about this as I am.
Don’t be a martyr. Don’t assume that you’re the only one, or the most qualified one, to take on a cause. You may, in fact, be the most qualified. You will, however, have a lot more impact if you have allies. Your effort will be harder to dismiss. Take your lobbying conversations to the second level – that’s the level where you switch from testing an idea to getting a commitment of support from your conversation partners. That’s how allies are born.
BUT: I will work to make sure that at least 3 other key influencers are as fired up about making this change as I am. We will be a rebel tribe. Together, we will have a powerful voice.
5. Accelerate the Process
NOT: Great conversation. Let’s revisit this at our next monthly staff meeting.
We know that when we desire change and momentum, this is not a compelling way to end a meeting. We’ve all been in meetings, especially those where new ideas were proffered, that end in deferment. Don’t accept deferment. Ask for more. Suggest next-step commitments. And make them time-bound.
BUT: Great conversation. Let’s commit to the following three actions! Can we get this done by the end of next week? Who will take on which item? Awesome.
Successful impatience is strategic, it is persistent, and it pushes the proverbial envelope while playing successfully with others.
Celebrate your impatience. Impatience with the status quo is a powerful incubator for new ideas and new ways of doing/being. Season your impatience with your ability to be patient. They are flip sides of the same coin.
Hard? Perhaps. Not harnessing your impatience is harder.
I DID attend one event at Art Basel. The Design Miami exhibit. Showed up with a good attitude. Dodged traffic nightmares by parking at a friend’s house the night before. A little bit of strategy to harness my impatience.
I had a great time.