“Professionals put things away slowly so that they’ll be ready quickly when needed. Investing time now for time later.”
I saw this comment in a Seth Godin blog and it reminded me of a Sunday morning. Let me explain. As a wannabe guitar player, (anything with no more than four chords is fine), and a worship leader we would like to think our musical quality is the big deal, but the set-up and take-down are where everything stands or falls.
Cards on the table time. I’m a lifelong Eagles fan. I know all the lyrics, can play a lot of the songs, but for me it’s the quality of their harmonies and the clarity of sound that grabs me. I can’t imagine their team of roadies and instrument technicians pulling out cables and guitar leads and stuffing them into the nearest box.
There is an art to coiling a guitar lead, as some of you may know or indeed may have seen. It’s done slowly and deliberately by twisting the lead in your fingers to ensure it coils properly and can be packed flat. If you wind it round your elbow as you might with a rope…you might get a tap on the shoulder and shown how to do it properly. If you stretch the lead it damages the connections. If you damage the connections you destroy the quality of the sound, upset the audience and really unsettle and annoy the musicians. Snap, crackle and pop is only welcome in cereals!
It’s worth taking time to do things properly. In fact, if equipment is properly put away it speeds up the set-up. Everything is in its place, easily accessible, no rushing about looking for that special right-angled lead or effects pedal. The techs know where everything is and how it goes back together.
It’s been said that there are three types of service – cheap, fast or good but you can only have two out of the three. We do things properly not quickly. We recognise the importance of taking time and having everything properly arranged and in its proper place. It reduces the stress of scrambling about to gather things together and helps work towards a better experience for everyone.
GOOD, FAST or CHEAP:
Please choose 2
We have a forthcoming visit from our compliance specialist who pores over all our process documentation, client files, disaster recovery plans, training and development plans to make sure they are fit for purpose and conform to current regulations. So, we appreciate the value of having everything ready for appraisal. Scrambling about to find the latest version of each piece of the Stewardship propositional jigsaw would be a long process, and stressful, not to mention a huge waste of valuable time, time that would be better spent with clients, not chasing around tracking down misplaced documentation.
“Professionals put things away slowly so that they’ll be ready quickly when needed. Investing time now for time later.”
As they say…Take it Easy.