On a highway on-ramp you speed up to the traffic before you slide in. Match a group’s pace first, then try to steer it.
STILLNESS
WHAT THIS MEANS
Joining something and changing it are two different tasks, and doing them in the wrong order gets you nowhere. A group has a speed and a way of working, so arriving with suggestions before you are inside it makes you an obstacle rather than a member. Matching first is what earns the standing to steer at all.
If you are new anywhere this week, spend the early stretch learning how it already works and doing it their way. Hold your ideas; they will keep. Once people count you as one of them, make your case, and make it about one thing.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Which group would hear you better if you matched them first?
MORE IN PATIENCE & TIMING
- You don’t have to be the fastest reader in class. The book ends the same for everyone who finishes it.
- Two-day shipping trained everyone to expect everything fast. Skills and people never got that memo.
- The summer job where nothing exciting happens is still teaching you to show up on time. That matters more than it looks.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.