Recently, at a church service, an altar server caused a short pause by not anticipating a routine task during the service. As a former altar server, not anticipating this particular routine task has always bothered me as a congregant. Oddly, I could not shake the “bother” because the proactive vs. the reactive consumes more and more of my life and work as a consultant. So, I’d like to share some thoughts and suggestions on anticipating (with no criticism intended toward our young server).
The proactive person anticipates and acts. This person looks for things that could go wrong and puts measures in place to prevent them, creates policies for eventualities, communicates actively what he or she knows and does not know, and does other similar things. The reactive person may view the proactive person as wasting resources on things that may not come to pass, never relaxing in the present moment, and more broadly, not enjoying life. The “Martha”, if you will (why not stick with the subtle religious theme?!).
The reactive person moves more slowly and methodically. He or she takes in all the information, considers it in greater contexts, and acts with a just-in-time philosophy. This person argues that she is conserving resources, waiting to see how things play out, and maybe occasionally hoping that some just-disruptive-enough situation may occur to prevent her from having to complete the task at all! These are the “Marys”. (Quick note: I’m not talking about truly reactive people who simply aren’t paying attention. This is more about “strategic procrastinator” type people.)
Both types of people tend to drive the other crazy! So, which one is right? No surprise: both! There are always times when we should prepare ahead and know exactly how to respond or even prevent the inevitable situation. There are other times to sit back and let life take its course responding only if and when necessary, in a way that will be so obvious, no preparation is needed.
If both are right, how do you know when to apply which? First, we’re unlikely to overcome our default without a lot of conscious choices and habit training. But, for those rare times we can be the other type: anticipate and be proactive on high-stakes irreversible decisions and indulge your strategic procrastinator in low-stakes reversible decisions.
It really is that simple. Give it a try this week, and see how your outcomes, your team, and your blood pressure change.
Now…I’m sure there’s some hypothetical catastrophe I need to go anticipate and develop a plan to respond to just in case…(if you wondered which way I tend to lean…)
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