60 seconds… you’d better be speedy. But then again…

Here are five questions.  You have two seconds to answer each…

1. What’s the opposite of “not in”?
2. What do cows drink?
3. What weighs more – a ton of metal or a ton of feathers?
4. How much dirt is in a hole measuring 2 metres by 3 metres by 4 metres?
5. Why has the word “gullible” been removed from the dictionary?

How did you get on?  The answers were: in, water, the same, none, it hasn’t.

Did you get them all? Or did you say: out, milk, metal, 24m² and “Really? I never knew that”?

The problem with speed

We make such quick decisions sometimes, that we sacrifice effectiveness for speed.  And, while we don’t have to get everything 100% right, things do need to be “right enough”.

When you spend the “right enough” amount of time preparing communications, you get things “right enough” first time.  This saves lots of follow-up, grief and hassle.

It sounds so obvious.  So, let’s have another quick quiz.  Do you ever…

1. Send things “FYI” without giving it any thought?
2. Turn up to a BNI meeting totally unprepared?
3. Use last time’s 60 seconds, even though it didn’t lead to any referrals?
4. Speed through a 121 so you can back to the ‘more important stuff’ in your diary?
5. Say “I need you to”, rather than “please can you”?

How did you get on?  (By the way, the answer should be no, no, no, no and no)

Here are two actions to do…

…Think of the biggest thing you’re working on, and ask yourself how long it might take to recover if you don’t communicate it well.  Then, ask yourself if your communications are right enough.

…If you answered “Yes” to any of the second quiz’s questions … stop doing that!

Tagged as: amount of time, decisions, dictionary, dirt, last time, quick quiz, QuizQuiz, referrals, time preparing communications