Why Do We Wait Until We Have No Choice?
What bothers me most is when we see it, talk about it, agree that something needs to change, and then wait. Sound Familiar?
I see this in organizations all the time. A process keeps frustrating the people using it. Staff know where things are breaking down. Leadership knows something needs attention. But there’s always something more urgent.
Until the process finally fails. Then it gets everyone’s attention.
I understand why we wait. Change takes energy. People are stretched. There are budgets, competing priorities and perfectly reasonable concerns about making the wrong decision.
But waiting is a decision too. And it doesn’t hold everything else in place while we get comfortable. So here is the question.
How much of our energy goes into responding to circumstances, and how much goes into creating something we actually want?
Our communities need to respond when they’re threatened. That work matters. But I don’t want a crisis to be the only thing that brings us together or gives us permission to do things differently.
A family shouldn’t have to leave a synagogue before we ask whether they feel connected. We shouldn’t need a leadership vacancy before we start inviting younger people into meaningful responsibility. We shouldn’t wait until a boycott on Jewish, Israeli owned eateries in Philadelphia to support those Philadelphia neighborhood businesses
When I think about the Jewish community I want my children to inherit, I want more than institutions that are good at responding to trouble. I want places people are excited to join, leaders willing to hear uncomfortable feedback, and room to try something different before the familiar stops working.
Sometimes that requires speaking up. Challenging a decision. Being willing to disturb what is comfortable.
But being proactive isn’t the same as being the loudest person in the room. Much of it is the opposite:
listening before people give up trying to be heard, making an introduction, or giving someone a chance to lead before they have a title.
The same applies to technology.
With AI, we don’t have to choose between adopting every new tool and waiting until we’re forced to catch up. We can identify a real problem, involve the people doing the work and test a better approach with appropriate safeguards.
We can learn while there’s still room to make adjustments.
That is very different from making a rushed decision because the current way of working has become impossible.
It’s also why creating capacity matters. Asking an exhausted team to think about the future, while leaving everything on their plate, isn’t much of a strategy. Some time has to be protected for work that matters but hasn’t become urgent yet. Otherwise, today will keep consuming tomorrow.
And this isn’t just an organizational issue.
A relationship shouldn’t have to be in trouble before it gets our attention. We don’t need to wait for a difficult moment to make the call, ask the question or say something that should have been said a while ago.
None of us can anticipate everything. There will always be surprises, and responding well is part of leadership.
But we shouldn’t confuse being good in a crisis with having done everything we could before it arrived.
Ask yourself – What deserves my attention before it demands it?
There is probably a conversation, a relationship or a change that comes to mind.
You won’t solve the whole thing today but please don’t wait until we have no choice to begin.
