13May 2015

What Does ‘PACE’ Mean To You? Pace Change In The Workplace

  • Posted on May 13, 2015
  • By EMS Cognito
  • in Change, Impact, Time Management, Uncategorized
  • Comments: Comments Off on What Does ‘PACE’ Mean To You? Pace Change In The Workplace
  • Comments Off on What Does ‘PACE’ Mean To You? Pace Change In The Workplace
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What does ‘PACE’ mean to you?

I remember being taught at school that a mile was the same distance as a Roman Centurion covering in 1000 PACES, or 5000 Roman Feet! Things change, and there are standards in place now to measure exactly how far things are apart (The Romans weren’t bad at it though – but then ‘What did they ever do for us…..;o)’)

One thing nobody ever told me though was the amount of time they took to count the paces. PACES per minute is CADENCE. Cadence is a measure of rate, not distance.

Is that important, I hear you ask? Well yes, the rate at which things are measured is massively important, and unfortunately it’s almost always overlooked and spoken about in a misleading manner.

“We need to pick up the PACE”

“The PACE of change needs to be faster!”

But by earlier definition the PACE is the distance we travel, not the cadence (the rate)…..

Athletes are a perfect analogy for watching things done at pace. Usain Bolt, is a pretty good example. Watch his PACE. Real long stride and fast PACE.

To be as tall as Usain is with that stride length (PACE) requires massive physical strength to deal with the stress and strain it puts on one’s body. The sort of stress and strain that would injure or hurt most of us.

So why do we expect our businesses to be able to handle the rate of change in any different way?

Usain Bolt is one in a million, so there will be a company out there that can change at exceptional rates – but for most of us the approach needs to be different.

Lets be ready for change. Let’s keep fit, train, be aware. Lets turn up in the morning in our running shoes (not literally…)! Lets want to improve, lets have that mind set throughout our organisation.
Lets not be out of shape. If there is a lot of waste (or waist!) this is going to be difficult….

And if we aren’t Usain Bolt…. Lets accept that our rate of change, the PACE of change might be slower, because going to fast will hurt us!

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