Pushing is the most inefficient of all actions.

Yesterday morning Jackie, the office manager for the new Knee Clinic I’ve been working on, found out from Time/Warner that our internet and phone lines wouldn’t be installed until after our scheduled opening date. When she relayed the message to me my first reaction was that of deflation. Of all the hundreds of pieces we put in place perfectly, this was the one that was going to delay our opening.

Certainly we needed phones and internet to run the office, right? I suggested she call back and emphasize how important this was to us. She had no luck. Everyone was giving her the “there’s nothing I can do about it” response.

A half hour later I started to play out in my mind not having internet and phones, or even a phone number to open with. Well, it started to feel possible. We have enlisted a call center to field calls from our newspaper advertising, and that does not depend on our having an actual office phone. We have office software that actually does not depend on the internet, and we could use my mobile card to connect and download the software and read our online appointment call logs. And we could easily get a cell phone for the patients to call us back for follow-up.

The more I played this scenario out in my mind, the more I realized we could make it work. Actually, it sounded kind of fun, like moving into a new home while the construction was still going on in the kitchen, so the family sets up a microwave in the family room and eats on a picnic blanket on the floor.

I called Jackie and let her know the good news, “They can’t stop our opening. We can accomplish everything we need without the phones or internet.” As I explained, she laughed. She decided she would try again to see if they could somehow get it done earlier, but this time from of place of knowing that we didn’t “need” it done, it simply would be a wonderful luxury if it was possible.

The next thing I knew I had a test message that I better get over to the office immediately, because Time/Warner would be there in fifteen minutes to start the installation!

I don’t know how Jackie did it, but I know the conversation completely shifted from making a demand to asking a favor, from needing it to simply appreciating it, from pushing to allowing.

The emotional basis behind the conversation shifted from lack to abundance, and it created magic.