Ten Minutes, Ten Months, Ten Years

Suzy Welch, wife of Jack, who is an accomplished business person in her own right as former editor of the Harvard Business Review, has come out with her first book called 10-10-10.

The premise of the title & book is that when making decisions, whether they be business, family, or pleasure, we should consider the upside/downside/consequences in a frame of the next 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years. Too often, depending on our age & personality style, we either live in the distant future, or perhaps like many teenagers, for instant gratification. Even considering only the mid-range, we could miss short run benefits, or long run successes. Her point is that we should consider all three.

This is a simplistic approach, but I've found that often times, the more obvious is often lost because we make it more complicated. Remember that it's not only in the knowing, but in the doing. This is also a balanced approach, and looking at more sides of an issue is rarely flawed.

As we lead our folks and run our companies in these challenging times, we've seen many get extremely short run oriented. Perhaps we've had to, just to survive. But living only for today will not serve us well; we risk emerging less than we could have been considering the longer range.

Another advantage of screening our decisions this way, is that we tend to moderate our thoughts by considering the different time frames. In looking forward to how we might emerge, and how different conditions will be in 10 months, and especially 10 years, we gain more of a positive light. This balancing effect improves our outlook and allows for perhaps a more complete decision.

Talk with your managers about 10-10-10; ask them to broaden each other, and you, considering a wider time frame in all of your decision making.