Lately, there is no question that politics has reached a feverish pace. The election cycle is such that officials have an incredibly short time to spend on the act of governing before it's time to run for reelection again. In that short window, they are tasked with not only completing the unseen work of government, but generating enough positive publicity for themselves through social media and other channels that they best position themselves to get reelected. This obviously leaves very little time for the work that incrementally leads to the types of long-term cultural change that our society so desperately needs.
As of late, that same need for instant gratification has seemingly bled into many other industries. Granted, it's always been there on Wall Street and in other profit-driven sectors, but we see it emerging in other areas, including higher education. There is a need to demonstrate instant results and instant responses to the complicated and often messy issues that we face in higher education. This demand for immediate gratification will always run counter to the nature of cultural change, and that will continue to be a problem for us.
Seth Godin, in his insightful book on creativity, The Practice: Shipping Creative Work, reminds the reader that the idea hasn't worked...yet. Time becomes our enemy when we try to control it, and we are often much better off trusting the process. The idea of trusting the process, though, means not always expecting instant results. It also means sticking with an idea even if it hasn't yet yielded the results we were seeking.
The idea of trusting the process may seem reasonable in the abstract. However, folks often stray away in the face of external pressures. They allow others to dictate the pace of our ideas, and judge us based on their understanding of our ideas. They didn't create the idea. We did. To trust the process is to trust that the outcome will be worthwhile, even if the timeline to get there is longer than others would like. We would all do well to learn a little patience.
Trusting the process and allowing yourself to stretch the timeline isn't a sure fire recipe for success, of course. We would do well to remember that half of all of our ideas will be below average. That's simply the way it works. However, if we can maintain an understanding of what we are trying to accomplish and why we are doing it, then it becomes easier to play the long game. I imagine we'd also do well to rethink the "long game" itself so it means more than a week or two. We have to give our ideas a chance to unfold, to adapt, and to catch on. This can only happen if we trust the process and don't pull the plug at the first sign of discomfort.
