Six minutes is how long the average survivor of 9/11 took to ACT.
SIX long minutes.
When I first read this statistic in the book, The Unthinkable, I can remember thinking to myself that I would have acted much quicker. What were they thinking for six long minutes before they made their way to the stairwell? Who were they calling on their mobile? Whose advice were they seeking before they decided to ACT? What authority were they listening to and why? What were they afraid of that kept them from moving?
The truth is that we all share their tendency to wait. When we get overwhelmed with more than our system can handle, few of us panic, most of us become paralyzed. We stop. We wait. We freeze. In a moment of crisis, this tendency can kill us. If we wait too long, if we choose to worry and then worry some more, if we think we need to have one more meeting, if we think the problem will simply solve itself, we may crumble not because something outside is killing us, but because inactivity inside our system, IS.
Killing us, that is.
Yesterday, I met with a team that is waiting too long to ACT. They must know this because they certainly talked a lot about it together. They, just like you and I, however, must get busy acting. Our six minutes is ticking.
What are you waiting for?
BUILT TO LEAD 