The Need for Action, Not Talk

by Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters)
from The Art of Supportive Leadership, Copyright Hansa Trust

 

The newly elected officials of a formerly corrupt city government were in a tizzy. It seemed to them as though all their constituents had conflicting theories as to how the city government should be reorganized, and each was shouting for the acceptance of his own theories.

“We can’t possibly satisfy them all!” cried the councilors in exasperation.

“Never mind,” said the new mayor, a man of experience. “All we need to do is give them a well-run government. If we do, their theories won’t matter to them any more.”

Such, in fact, proved to be the case. Once the citizens found the new tree of government bearing wholesome fruit, they no longer cared much how the tree was being watered.

How often one finds debate only confusing issues instead of clarifying them! At such times, almost any action is better than wasting further hours, weeks, or months arguing the best possible course of action.

Planning that facilitates action may indeed save weeks of work. But planning that shelves action indefinitely only discourages the flow of creative energy. Many a project has been started under such a burden of carefully detailed plans and weighty expectations that, like an overloaded plane, it never manages to get off the ground.

People who devote too much time to discussing what they intend to do almost never end up actually doing it!

In one case to which I was a witness, the planners were so eloquent about a project that many people became fired with their enthusiasm.

I was not among them, however. There had been too much talk, too many brochures, too many tours of the property for a project that didn’t yet even exist.

As things turned out, the project failed. How could things have turned out otherwise? The reasons for its failure were simply these: too many beautiful dreams; and too little energy left over, after the dreaming, for constructive action.

The effective leader knows that an encyclopedia of good ideas is no substitute for even the least of those ideas put into actual practice. For, in the last analysis, the essence of leadership is action–not discussion, no matter how intelligent or convincing the talk.

In every deliberation there comes a point when the door to further discussion must be firmly closed, even if the subject has not been exhausted, even if it seems that the best possible solution has not yet been reached. This point is reached when discussion begins to block, rather than liberate, a group’s creative flow. At this point almost any action, short of utter lunacy, will be better than no action at all.

Never allow a group’s creativity to become stifled by an excess of words.

It may be argued that action, without careful deliberation, may prove not only hasty, but harmful. In fact, however, action itself often has a way of clarifying issues. Obviously, one shouldn’t, figuratively, leap blindfolded off a precipice. But one should at least test the possible avenues of descent, instead of standing about, endlessly theorizing.

The most important thing in leadership is to keep the creative energy flowing. As long as it continues to do so, that flow will itself generate ideas. It will melt away obstacles, open up new possibilities, and create a host of undreamed-of opportunities.

Remember these rules, then:
1. Leadership means action, not merely good ideas for action.
2. Don’t waste so much energy in planning that you have none left over for acting on your plans.
3. Action generates creativity.
4. Almost any action is preferable to prolonged inactivity, born of indecision.