July 12, 2006Mistaking Activity for Progress
It was a distinction people often overlook. Roger was telling Mike about all the work he was doing, and Mike replied,
- Let’s not mistake activity for progress. Tell me how close you are toward the goal in this project.
3 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
| TrackBack URI
You can also bookmark
this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos
Lots of activity can hide lack of progress… I think its a great PowerPhrase; you have to watch your tone of voice when using this one.
Comment by Mike C — July 14, 2006 @ 10:06 am
This is an excellent question one can ask oneself. I have a habit of confusing the two. I was recently involved in streamlining an involved process, and found myself excited about all the things I could now do with some new software I had gotten. Then I realized all my new “improved” processes added many new steps and took a lot more time. I re-evaluated what I was doing and found that some of my new processess where not helping to streamline the process and were really unnecessary. I just wanted everyone to know what I could do with my new “tools”. I was mistaking all my activity for progress, so I curbed my ego and got back to the basics of what my goal really was.
Comment by Kim — July 15, 2010 @ 8:50 am
I love it, Kim. And there is a time and place to explore our new toys, skills and abilities. And a time and place to rein ourselves in and make the distinction.
As you imply, it’s important not to confuse the two.
Comment by merylrunion — July 15, 2010 @ 9:27 am