Whether holding still is an option has almost nothing to do with nerve.
Something would go wrong, and the room wanted to see motion. Someone doing something, visibly, now. Movement.
The pull to give them that is strong. Visible action is proof you’re on it.
The version of that pull from AI is even louder.
Acting before I understood the shape of a thing was how I spent the window I needed and ended up further back than I started. So sometimes I held still, and let it stay quiet while I worked out what was actually happening.
What I came to realise was that my pause was never free. It cost other people something.
The stakeholders waiting on me had their own stakeholders waiting on them. When I said I’m taking time to understand this first, the message didn’t stop with them. They had to carry it upward. Stand in a room I wasn’t in and say he’s taking time – then defend it with their credibility, not mine.
That’s the real price of holding still. You’re asking someone to take a risk on your behalf, in a conversation you’ll never see.
What enabled me to hold still wasn’t courage. It was having enough ground with enough people with more power than me, who would be comfortable carrying that message for me.
The pause was never really decided in the moment. It was decided months earlier, in conversations that had nothing to do with it.
