Why we don’t finish what we start
We’ve probably all experienced in our lives the phenomenon of starting something and not finishing it. I know I have, both in my personal life and my business life, I’ve had lots of ideas that I’ve written down and started with a great gust of enthusiasm and never actually finished. We probably know some people in our lives who are more prone to that and then others who seem to be better at finishing things off. Our guests in this episode are going to be telling us all about the science behind why we don’t finish what we start. They will explain how this is related to much more fundamental issues within our organisations when it comes to employee engagement and our willingness to see things through both in our personal lives and also in our work. We’re going to be finding out all about this phenomenon known as ‘Swipe’, which is also the title of their book. The analogy is when we are looking at something on our iPad or our phones or our smart devices, where we swipe to one side to get rid of something. This is also something that we do in our lives when we come across things that are more difficult than we expected or are going to take more time than we anticipated.
Both individually and collectively, we can all relate to the challenges within our organisations of projects that take a lot longer to finish than we ever thought and get abandoned by the organisation. This can generate cynicism within our organisations amongst the people when we start things with great fanfare and gusto and we never actually finish them. This is what we’re going to be exploring in this episode, we’re going to be talking about the phenomena of not finishing what we start and how we can avoid that. What are some of the things that we need to have within our organisations and also what do we need to take personal responsibility for when it comes to making sure that we see things through, so that we don’t just quit when we find the going gets tough? It’s quite a long interview, but very interesting and with two great guests who have collaborated extensively over the last few years and are sharing their insights with us. I hope you enjoy the episode.
You can download our graphic summary of this interview by clicking on the link below. This is an example of the visual communications products we create at The Big Picture People.
Guest profile
Tracy Maylett is a CEO, organisational psychologist, researcher, speaker, and university professor. He advises leaders throughout the world on employee engagement and organisational effectiveness.
Tim Vandehey is a journalist, columnist, and New York Times bestselling ghostwriter of more than 65 nonfiction books in genres such as business, finance, advice, outdoor adventure, religion, memoir, parenting, and health.
Together Tracy and Tim have written the book “SWIPE: THE SCIENCE BEHIND WHY WE DON’T FINISH WHAT WE START” which is about why we give up on our goals and disengage when the going gets tough.
Useful links
Link to a relevant episode of the podcast: https://thebigpicturepeople.co.uk/blog/podcast/the-iconist-the-art-and-science-of-standing-out/
Links:
LinkedIn profiles: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tvandehey/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracymaylett/
Book: https://swipethebook.com
Website: https://decision-wise.com/