Zero to three hundo …

I was thinking about speed recently.  Hmmm, thinking… I know… what a concept.  But I digress...

I wasn’t thinking about the miles per hour kind of speed, although that kind is pretty awesome!  Ever wonder how one goes from zero to 330 mph in 4 seconds?  That kind of speed is dangerous however, as witnessed by the recent crash that threatened the life of NHRA legend John Force.  His crash wasn’t enough to keep his daughter, Brittany Force, from continuing to race.  Another 300 plus mph speedster. 

We all deal with speed in our business and personal lives.  Sometimes I worry about our need for speed.  Nicolas Carr in his book (and one of my favorites) The Big Switch © offered: 

The emphasis of the Internet… stresses immediacy, simultaneity, contingency, subjectivity, disposability, and above all, speed.  The Net provides no incentive to stop and think deeply about anything… It's easier… to Google something a second or third time than remember it ourselves. 

“easier to Google again than to remember…”  I’m guilty of that, you too?  Makes me worry about our future trajectory.  How did we wind up on this fast track?  Here’s a little history lesson courtesy of Rick Levine:

 

And along comes the Internet.  It was as if we'd ordered it from Arizona: “Hello, US Federal Government?  Yes, we'd like one totally open, high-speed, data backbone. Uh-huh, and charge that to the Department of Defense, why don’t you?  What's that?  What do we want if for?  Oh, just chatting about stuff.  You know, this and that."                                  

Yep, “this and that” describes all of us today, true?  What would we do without the Internet; smart phones; GPS; door bell video; and the myriad of other technological conveniences we rely on these days?   Would we have to “stop and think deeply” – God forbid!  Well, I didn’t name chapter three of my book. “Dark Ages Computing” by accident. 

Automation in the business world is a double-edged sword.  We have benefited greatly from machines automating manual processes, but only when coupled with thinking deeply: 

Automating a bad process just speeds you on the road towards disaster. 

Tom DeFloria 

And don’t get me started on the machines; aka AI; aka artificial intelligence.  Am I the only one whose noticed the combination of the words artificial and intelligence?  Well, today I guess we all depend on artificial this and that… artificial flavoring; artificial turf; lab grown diamonds; eyelashes; Alexa! 

In the modern business world when everything everywhere is speedy (and sometimes artificial) how does a salesperson differentiate himself from competition?  Here’s one point of view I align with: 

… in sales the race doesn’t go to the swift.  It goes to the responsive… 

Responsiveness = Value + Speed 

              Andy Paul 

Speed vs. responsiveness; that makes a lot of sense to me.  I mean how many times do you wait for someone to return your call; answer a text; reply to an email?  With everyone carrying high speed technology in their pocket or in their wristwatch, why aren’t people more responsive?  Perhaps being responsive requires one to “stop and think deeply”.  If so, we’re in trouble! 

Yes, men and women can now go from zero to 330 miles per hour in 4 seconds.  We can operate even faster with the Internet coupled with the machines.  But I suspect the real challenge these days is whether we can learn to slow down and think from time to time. 

                                                            GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.