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No Fast and Easy Way
- Flawless | M. J. Wheatley
- Transformation: Slow, Small, and Low Cost | Dan Joyner
- Risk Is Where You Find It | Peter Block
- Consultant, Flawed: A Story of Eternal Internal Triangles | Ken Murphy
We live in a one-minute culture where speed is God and time is the devil. Our food is fast, freeze-dried, and microwaved. Our learning is anytime, anywhere; we read executive summaries instead of books and reports; and we want the answer now. And we also want the answer in simple, easy-to-use steps. No pain, big gain. The instinct for speed and simplicity, while useful for mail and information, is an obstacle to wisdom and the reflection required for real change.
In fact, for much of our consulting work, speed becomes a defense against change. To be in a great hurry is to defend against the confusion, doubt, and complexity necessary to create a future that is different from our past. Change is always destabilizing and therefore it always creates anxiety. Our capacity to serve our clients, then, is always dependent on our ability to deal with anxiety in all its many forms. The emotional cost of doing consulting is to entertain a long-term relationship with anxiety and its unpredictable effects.
Anxiety comes in two forms: anxiety in ourselves and anxiety in others. My anxiety leads me to think that my own toolbox and my own capacities are perpetually incomplete. ...