Career News 24/7: The Cynical Girl: Corporate Speedbump

Friday, February 17, 2012

The Cynical Girl: Corporate Speedbump

Posted: 16 Feb 2012 03:45 AM PST

I am someone who likes to plow through corporate infrastructures to get things done. You need me to layoff people in Belgium? Implement a succession management strategy for our office in Singapore? Change the HR handbook — a move that requires board approval?

Okay, whatever, I’ll get it done.

How?

I dunno. Please don’t worry about it. I will figure it out.

I always hated those people who tried to slow me down and get in my way. I have no love for speed bumps and nosy HR folks who wanted to create committees and teams.

Identify and collaborate with stakeholders? Are you joking? I’ve got work to do.

Except now that I’m a little older, I have become a speed bump. Sorta. I can’t tell you how many times I slow things down because I just don’t understand and I want more clarity. And I’m really not trying to slow things down. I trust my colleagues but I want the facts because believe in a right-first-time methodology and I want to focus on continuous improvement.

At this point in my life, I know that quality beats speed.

And for the most part, my colleagues and partners — at work, in the blogging community — are all on board.

And I’m still fast. Good god, almost too fast. Except now my winning percentage is higher. And that’s the number that really matters, anyway.