Google #3: Faster is Better than Slow

Faster is better than slow.

Everybody knows that. And this isn’t a commercial for insurance.

Continuing our series on Google’s 10 Things We Know to Be True, Google’s third principle seems like somewhat of a no-brainer.

We know your time is valuable, so when you’re seeking an answer on the web you want it right away–and we aim to please. We may be the only people in the world who can say our goal is to have people leave our website as quickly as possible… We keep speed in mind with each new product we release… And we continue to work on making it all go even faster.

Faster Everything

Yes, we all want faster websites, but this principle goes beyond just websites and it applies to all churches, schools, nonprofits and businesses. We all want

• Faster meetings
• Faster delivery of products
• Faster completion of projects
• Faster replies to our calls and emails
• Shorter waits to meet with a pastor or counselor

Everybody wants faster, but most organizations are not faster because faster is difficult. Faster requires 3 important things.

1) Faster requires intentionality.

Nothing gets faster by accident. It takes a lot of thought to figure out how to get faster and a lot of work to implement strategies to get faster. Google engineers meticulously “shave bits and bytes from our pages.” Runners train relentlessly to get faster. Faster starts with a choice. You have to really want it!

2) Faster requires saying no.

The average car weighs over 3,000 pounds and goes around 100 miles per hour. The average Indy race car goes over 220 miles per hour, but to do that they cut the weight of the car down below 1600 pounds.  Indy car teams have say no to a lot of features we take for granted – no audio system, no rear view camera, no windows.

Google offers dozens of services yet there are links to just 6 on their homepage and no text or images to explain or sell them.

• If you want a faster website, you have to say no to some plugins and content.
• If you want faster meetings, you have to say no to some agenda items and lengthy mid-meeting rants and tangents
• If you want to complete projects faster, you have to say no to other projects
• If you’re a pastor or counselor and want faster wait times to meet with you, you have to say no to other things on your schedule.

3) Faster requires resources.

Google pays their engineers to meticulously “shave bits and bytes from our pages.” An athlete who is serious about getting faster gets a coach or personal trainer. In other words, faster costs money.

If you want to get faster, you may need to…

• Hire an assistant or secretary for yourself
• Hire a business or ministry coach to look at your processes
• Hire additional engineers or customer service staff
• Buy software that will automate or help you better organize things
• Develop processes in areas where you’re currently “winging it” so you’re not making the same decisions over and over.

In what ways would you like to get faster? What do you need to do to get faster?