Stopping to Sharpen The Saw
Sharpen the Saw
In the early 1990’s Stephen Covey’s bestseller ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ swept through the business world.
Phrases like ‘paradigm shift’ and ‘think win-win’ entered the corporate vernacular.
The seven habits were cemented into my brain in the mid 90’s and I still find myself drawing on them with fond memories of the day I first had my eyes opened to thinking in frameworks and analysing processes.
My favourite of the seven habits was ‘sharpen the saw’. Covey tells a story about a lumberjack trying to cut down a tree wiith a blunt saw. He is frustrated that his blunt saw won’t cut down the tree. When asked why he doesn’t simply stop to sharpen the saw and be more effective and efficient, he responds by statomg that he doesn’t have time to stop and sharpen the saw because he has to cut down the tree.
At the time of reading this, I felt as though I had been enlightened and promised myself that I would be aware of the efficiencies and effectiveness that come through stopping and analysing processes to speed up outcomes.
Blunt Saws and Frustrated Lumberjacks
Fast forward thirty years and I see blunt saws and frustrated lumberjacks…. everywhere. Unfortunately, I am the worst example of not following this wisdom.
I see it amongst all the lawyers I work with. The term ‘busy’ is worn like a badge of honour.
We are too busy to hire new staff and train them to lighten the workload.
We are too busy to stop and rework our processes to speed up the next file.
We are too busy to make a screen recording of how we do a process to add to our training manual.
We are too busy to leave work early or start work later or have a day, week or month off.
You get the picture.
If we were to stop… and adjust a precedent, have a meeting about a workflow, buy a precedent that updated our materials, took on some training to increase file velocity it could make all the difference.
My question is….. are you telling yourself that you don’t have time to stop and improve things ?
My challenge is…. what would it look like if you stopped to sharpen your saw ?