Or, the ability to get things done is under-rated
‘The smallest deed is better than the grandest intention’. John Burroughs
There is a lot of talk in education about the transformative power of a great strategy, and clear vision, and forensic planning for improvement; there is very little talk about the power of just getting things done, but getting things done is at the heart of effective day-to-day practice in organisations.
When the brand Nike launched its new ‘Just Do It!’ campaign in the spring of 1988, they wanted to move away from advertising that spoke to ‘the top of the pyramid’ (Jerome Conlon) – male athletes in competitive sports – and towards advertising that sought to appeal to everyone. The power of the ‘Just do it!’ slogan is that it reminds us that we have agency – the power within ourselves to act – and all we need to do is to choose to exercise that power. The ‘Just Do It’ slogan was key to transforming Nike from a small sportswear brand based in Oregon to a global brand with a reported annual revenue for 2022 of over $51 Billion.
Nike of course were far from being the first to recognise the importance of just doing stuff. A quick tour through the online archives reveals that: Henry Ford said, ‘You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do’; Mark Twain said, ‘The secret of getting ahead is getting started’; Shakespeare said, ‘Nothing will come of nothing’; Dante Alighieri said, ‘The essence of getting things done is to act’; Aristotle said ‘We are what we do’ (Have you noticed that, like Marcus Aurelius, Aristotle apparently had something to say about almost everything?); Plato, too, reminded us that ‘The beginning is the most important part of the work’. All of these calls to action link, at least in part, to the power of getting to it.
Whilst just doing things is crucially important, it’s not the whole story: we do also need to decide what to do, of course, and we need to see how small individual actions might contribute to achieving our overall aims. And, just as crucial, we need to stick at things – so often people start things but they don’t see them through.
And then there is fear. Some people are fearful of acting, either because there is so much to do – the mountain is too dizzyingly high to climb – or because they fear getting it wrong. In that regard, I like this Tony Robbins suggestion for just getting on with it:
‘No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying’. Truth.
