During school, we learned about the concept of Rate Determining Step in Chemistry.

Rate determining step is the slowest step in a chemical reaction. It determines the rate (or speed) of the chemical reaction.

It’s like a traffic jam that slows down everything else, no matter how fast the other parts of the reaction go.

Ever since I learned about this concept, I’ve been seeing it play out in day to day life.

Example: 4 friends decide to play Pickleball. They have to reach the venue at 7AM. The friend who is the laziest/last to reach, unintentionally decides when others start playing.

The slowest step determines the outcome for others.

Another example: You decide to collaborate with a couple of friends on a web app project. You divide responsibilities such that Friend A does design, Friend B does programming, and you create the content.

Whichever person is the slowest to ship eventually decides the speed of the project.

One more example: In my software services business, we have multiple functions – sales, project onboarding, project delivery, finances, etc. While trying to grow the business, the function that is the slowest to achieve outcomes sets the overall pace for growth.

You can see how the slowest step controls how fast everything else can go.

But that also means that if you can make the slowest step faster, you can make the whole thing faster.

So if you’re in this situation, make it your responsibility to wake up the laziest friend first, unblock the slowest project mate, and help improve the slowest function of your business. That will be the best way to make the whole thing better.

P.S. This doesn’t hold true when you make a fast step faster. The person who reaches the game venue earliest does no good by reaching there even earlier!