I do believe that patience is a virtue; however, in some areas of my life, I can be very impatient. One place where I find little patience is the mall. I walk so fast through the mall to get from one location to another that I imagine a security person watching me on their monitors and saying: “Joe, check this guy out. Do you think he just stole something?” I walk with purpose because I need to get on to other more important jobs! Patience does nothing for my shopping plan.
Conversely, patience is necessary when building anything of value. I remember from my teaching days when I would dig into content at a very deep and detailed level during a lesson and then expect students perform at a high level. It didn’t always work that way. Even though I taught my content very…thoroughly…, sometimes students just wouldn’t get to where I needed them to be. I learned that breaking up content into smaller parts and teaching those parts one at a time, always spiraling back and practicing those concepts, helped my students to perform at a much higher level. I learned that there were very few, if any, quick fixes for anything of significance no matter how hard I worked and how well I planned.
As an administrator, I have learned that the best programs come from ideas that grow over time. We work with people, not machines which make the tenet articulated in my title even more important. When working with a team of people, patience is much more than a virtue, it is essential to the success of everyone. Taking time and moving slowly through the team building and norm building processes will allow you to move much quicker in the future. Not only is it important to get everyone on the same page, it is important to develop a common understanding of the topic at hand. Taking the time to study together and develop that common knowledge makes all future conversations much more productive. It is not passé to develop the beliefs, vision and mission of the group. Remember, most success comes from how decisions are made, not from what was decided. Process is at least as important as content.
Like a train, big ideas start slowly as they build speed and power. Once they have gotten up to speed, they are very difficult to stop and are more easily sustained. Lay groundwork for your endeavors and continue to work toward excellence with a team. Be patient without being idle and you’ll find success down the track!
jackparkerblog 
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