To Cut Down a Tree in Five Minutes, Spend Three Minutes Sharpening Your Axe!

The recent announcement by the federal government of the Canadian Digital Adoption Program (#CDAP) made me think of this old adage from my grandfather that has proven to be useful many times : “To cut down a tree in five minutes, spend three minutes sharpening your axe!”.

The $4 billion in support to help Canadian SMEs increase their online presence and accelerate digital adoption to be more competitive and productive will not have the expected effect if the real opportunities specific to each company are not properly identified upstream.

Successfully completing a digital adoption project is a bit like cutting down a tree:

➡️ This is prepared conscientiously, observing the tree from all angles and identifying the best strategy to put it down without damaging everything around it. Because every tree is different and has its own context.

➡️ Then we take our courage (and our axe) in both hands, to realize the grounding.

However, when faced with a huge tree, it is easy to be seduced by a false belief: “It will surely go faster if we put in more effort and get started quickly”.

Experience has shown me that the success of any project is essentially in the preparation phase. Conscientiously sharpening your axe is the key to efficient success. Too many people still mistakenly believe that they should rush into action and that technology will provide the answers to all their needs along the way.

In the next few weeks, I’ll try to share with you some thoughts to help you avoid this trap and prepare the ground for your digital shift. That way, if you want to take full advantage of #CDAP, you’ll know how to get started!

• 2,400 non-repayable micro-grant to improve your online presence (Stream 1).
• More funding available for other digital shift projects (Stream 2).

Enjoy it!

Eric.