Are You Taking Steps, or Making Progress?

The death of Dame Penelope Keith has sent us back to watching old episodes of *The Good Life*. Nearly fifty years on, they're still as fresh, delightful and funny as ever.

Margot and Jerry Leadbetter were the impeccably respectable neighbours of Tom and Barbara Good, forever bemused by their decision to abandon the rat race and become self-sufficient. Much of the comedy came from Margot's wonderfully sharp and yet often unintentional observations against Jerry's perceptive and gentle attempts to keep everyone happy.

In an episode we watched the other night, Jerry, seeking to dampen Margot's latest resolve, declares, "I'm taking steps." Margot shoots back, "But have you actually made any progress?"

I laughed. Then I grabbed my pen. Like many of the lines in the script, there is much wisdom in the wit.

Taking steps can involve attending meetings, revising strategies, reading another book, having one more conversation or launching a new initiative. All good things. They keep us busy. They make us feel we're moving.

But making progress... that's another matter altogether. Perhaps progress is measured less by asking, "What's been done?" and more by asking, "What's changed?"

Do you have a better understanding of the role you now find yourself inhabiting? Have you moved any closer to the person you want to become? Has that essential conversation happened? Is your team working differently? Have decisions brought greater clarity or simply generated more activity?

Taking steps really matters: without steps there's little chance of progress. But they are not the same thing.

I suspect that every time I hear someone talking about "taking steps", Margot Leadbetter will appear on my shoulder asking, "But have you actually made any progress?"