Slow down to speed up.

But only if you want your message to land. 

Whether you’re negotiating a deal, influencing a decision, or simply trying to get buy-in: context is everything. 

There’s an adage in motor racing: “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast”. The fastest lap may feel like the slowest because you’ve paid more attention to executing the fundamentals. 

And one of those fundamentals is context. 

When we speed past context at the start of a conversation, we create resistance instead of momentum. 

Context prepares the other person to receive your message. It answers the questions already forming in their mind: “What’s this conversation about?”, “Why does it matter to me?” and “Where are we headed?”

Without it, we’re asking someone to make sense of a novel at pace - right after ripping out the first four chapters. 

This year, we’ve got important stuff to get across the line. Sometime soon, you’ll be in a meeting, feeling the pressure, ready to launch because it’s now or never. But when importance bleeds into a rush to get it all out, we sabotage our message. 

Remember what it’s like to be on the receiving end? Trying to catch a message launched at warp speed - the “wait, what?” moment that quickly transforms into scepticism, frustration, or both. Yeah, not good. 

Harvard’s Deepak Malhotra nails it in Negotiating the Impossible: 

"Don’t just prepare your arguments, prepare your audience for your arguments."

It’s an invitation to slow down and paint the context for them. It’s not filler, it’s foundation. 

So, here’s my third reflection for 2026: let’s slow down when communicating what matters most. 

Yes, context takes a bit more time. But if we don’t want the other person to fumble our message, we will help them catch it ⚾️