Do You Practice Comfortable Inaction?

Recently I came across the following John F. Kennedy quote – “There are risks and costs to a program of actions. But they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.” There have been several articles about comfortable inaction, so I thought I would take a shot at it also.

For starters, most people who suffer from “comfortable inaction” (and make no mistake, they suffer from it) don’t know it or the short term and long term effects it is having on them. Comfortable inaction occurs when your unhappiness or discomfort about a particular issue has not quite reached the point where you feel the need to do something –

• It’s realizing that you must lose weight but since you can still “squeeze” into your clothes, so you do nothing.
• It’s the employee who you know is not performing well so you do nothing; accept whatever they produce to avoid taking action
• It’s the client you know you should fire but you do nothing and decide to “live with it just a little longer”
• It’s that nagging problem or issue that lingers in your mind that you keep putting off until “you can wrap your head around it.” But you still do nothing.

All of us have had (or may currently have) problems like these as well as many others. Too many of us put up with these types of problem -- but since we have decided to continue to live with them we never properly deal with them. We adapt and find ways around them until they get worse and then we decide to act – usually too late – after we have incurred a loss of time, money, personal or team productivity, energy and possibly your credibility (for being seen as a person of “inaction”). Make no mistake; there is always a cost or loss for comfortable inaction.

Comfortable inaction (especially by people in leadership positions) can be a significant threat to an organization’s operations and growth. When work doesn’t get done, when problems go unattended an organization suffers. They could see decreases in revenues as well as increases in expenses; loss of market share; and a myriad of other challenges – all created by comfortable inaction. No problem really ever gets solved when it’s ignored and doesn’t get the attention and action it deserves. Problems are best solved when they are acted upon when they are still little and less complicated. Comfortable inaction just makes problems bigger and more complicated.

Effective leaders as well as successful business professionals know that they are expected to deliver the right results on a timely basis. As such, to meet this expectation, they need to remain alert about the costly downsides of comfortable inaction.

A leader knows that they cannot sit on the sidelines and watch problems get ignored. They need to lead by example, act and deal with the issue rather than put it off and do nothing.
Quote: “Problems of every size and shape come and go. Timely action taken to solve them makes you better. Ignoring them invites them to stay and get bigger; like an unwanted house guest who never goes home” – Chris Ruisi – “The Coach”