Slow is smooth, smooth is fast

We indeed live in a fast-paced industry. Sometimes, we sprint to meet a market close or a project deadline. Conversely, a long bout of rushing and sprinting can lead to errors, shortcuts, and eventual burnout. Sometimes, it’s important to stop what you are doing and remember this phrase: “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.”

I read many thriller novels that delve deep into the world of military special operations. In those novels, I often read, “slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” It’s usually just before the Navy Seal pulls the trigger or does something risky or life-threatening to the “bad guy.” 

What does it mean?

In the context of our industry, I believe this saying serves as a guiding light, reminding us to take the appropriate amount of time to do things carefully, deliberately, and methodically. This understanding empowers us to avoid making uninformed or risky decisions, leading to a sense of relief and control. 

When we rush, we make mistakes, miss important details, and waste time and energy on activities that don’t move us forward. Instead, by slowing down and taking the necessary time to do the task right, you have better outcomes and often faster than the “rush-mistake-fix” approach! This applies to day-to-day tasks, where rushing things could lead to mistakes. It also applies to failed strategic planning, such as a failed sales strategy because you offered something your market didn’t want or need.  If you take your time, you will make fewer mistakes and be more successful.

How fast is fast?

The first step to a long-term solution of error reduction or poor performance is recognizing this in yourself and your team. This recognition is not a sign of failure but a step towards improvement, and it should be encouraged and supported.

You know you're running too hot when you start seeing things fall through cracks, don’t remember what you did yesterday, or have increased errors. We all have moments like this when everything is blurry, and we feel like we sprint from the moment we start work to the end of the day. Only when you slow down and are a bit more careful and deliberate will things change for the better.

How fast is slow?

The next step to sorting this out is figuring out how fast slow is.  Let’s look at an example of when you pushed yourself to submit paperwork before the office cut-off. You made the deadline. But the next day, you notice the paperwork has been handed back to you with errors and a missed signature. This is a perfect example of a “rush-mistake-fix” task that will now take longer to complete because you rushed. Other examples could be rushing to meet a project deadline and then having to spend extra time fixing errors, or rushing to launch a product without proper testing and then dealing with customer complaints.

A “slow is smooth” approach means that you would have reviewed the paperwork for signatures and errors before submitting and hoped to meet the office deadline. Alternatively, you would have informed the back office that you have an incoming app that will be 10 minutes late and asked for an exception. In other words, “slow” is as fast as it takes to do something right the first time. 

It’s also important to note that the speed of “slow” is contextual and will be different for you, each team member, and everyone else. So, in this step of sorting out the right pace, you tackle various tasks through testing and putting “rules” in place.  For example, if you know it takes 90 minutes on average to do all the paperwork required to open an account, you need to plan for that, knowing you have an office cut-off.  Or in your efforts to pursue a new niche market, permit yourself to do a three-week deep dive, instead of three days, to give yourself the best chance of success.

Smooth is fast

Once you’ve determined how long it takes to do your various tasks with little or no error, magic happens because you are repurposing your past “error fixing” time into the highest and best use of your and your team’s time. This is what we mean by “smooth is fast.” When you've mastered a task to the point where you can complete it without errors and with minimal effort, you're saving time and ensuring a fast and efficient outcome.

The bottom line

“Slow is smooth, smooth is fast” is by no means suggesting you should be lazy or unproductive. It's precisely the opposite. Keeping this phrase in the back of your mind is a way to remind you to optimize your productivity when you set expectations and processes to complete the tasks successfully. In the military, they call it “rules of engagement,” and in the airlines, they call it a “flight check” and use assorted checklists for various stages of a flight. In our world, the biggest costs of errors are time and lost opportunity.

By taking the time to do things carefully and deliberately, you will achieve incredible speed and efficiency. This approach minimizes errors and ensures smoother and faster outcomes. It's a concept that promotes productivity and success and leaves you with a sense of accomplishment, motivating you to continue optimizing your productivity. 

Jeff Thorsteinson is a partner in Advisor Practice Management, an organization that helps financial advisors build world-class practices through innovative concepts, tools, and systems. Jeff works with individual advisors, investment dealers, insurance firms, and fund companies. For more information about Advisor Practice Management, contact [email protected] or 1-800-223-9332, or visit the website at www.apm.coach.