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| One way to relearn an old lesson |
A meter in Vancouver hoodwinked me, and it only took 15 seconds. I was supposed to be on a mellow vacation, yet it set off an inevitable cascade of events that had me running around one neighborhood of the city like a madman. I bought parking at the same place four separate times in one day, and paid nearly $35 for something I could have gotten either for free, or for $15 at the most.
My nemesis also taught me (or really retaught me) a lesson I sometimes need to relearn: at pivotal moments when the adrenaline is flowing, that’s when you most need to take a real pause and step back from the flow of events before you try to finish. I’ve found a similar principle in organizations. When you’re working on a team project that is 95 percent done, it’s that last 5 percent that can mean the difference between true excellence and the mediocre. If you don’t step back for a minute to figure out the last few things, you’re probably going to end up with the latter.
OK, now let me tell you the full story.
