By Nigel Paine

The small and anachronistic Welsh Church stands as a reminder of a more genteel Melbourne nestled, as it is, in amongst the tall office blocks which now dominate the location.  It is half-way down La Trobe Street sitting slightly inappropriately between Queen and Elizabeth streets given its non-conformist Chapel antecedents.  La Trobe is one of the main east/west thoroughfares in Melbourne’s CBD.  A Welsh Chapel has stood in this spot since 1857 but the current gothic building was opened in 1871. It is noted for its pithy messages on the big board outside the church, aimed at passers-by. The current one reads: “What is the difference between wants and needs? I want ABS, I need chocolate”.

There is something quite profound about that 14-word message. It applies to organisations as well as individuals and juxtaposes short term benefits with longer term aspirations, with instant solutions and longer-term efforts. Many organizations aspire to ‘abs’ but take easier decisions that sacrifice or postpone the longer term for the easier short-term gain.  To get ‘abs’ requires persistence, commitment over the medium term and a ruthless dedication. It is important to apply effort consistently to reach that goal.  Grabbing chocolate is easy and delivers a short-term reward, but it moves you further away from the longer-term aspiration.   Many examples exist of organizations with longer term aspirations that are obscured by short term necessities. For example, the long-term aspiration of building a culture where people matter, can to derailed in minutes by a quickly introduced redundancy programme that allows a short-term profitability target to be met. Trust has been breached and it is hard to restart the former programme with anything like the momentum created by the initial effort. And consistent postponement of the longer term in favour of the short term will derail any initiative completely.

The conclusion is fundamental: turning aspirations into reality is hard and requires consistent effort over time. Short term necessities, on the other hand, can be glibly acquired with little consideration for the longer-term impact. Too much chocolate and you can forget about Abs!

The world might be a better place if more people walked past the Welsh Church in La Trobe street and read their message board.