As so many of us are chasing speed, efficiency and a bit of lightness at work, asking the important question, “Will it make the boat go faster?” can be an excellent solution.
As so many of us are chasing speed, efficiency and a bit of lightness at work, asking the important question, “Will it make the boat go faster?” can be an excellent solution.
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Hey, it’s Rachel Cooke, your Modern Mentor. I’m the founder of Lead Above Noise—a firm specializing in helping leaders and organizations crack their activation codes – finding the simple tweaks to enhance both performance and engagement.
Question for you. Did you hear the one about the British rowing team that took home the Olympic gold in 2000?
The short version is this: The GB8 team’s rowing performance in the 1990’s was…not so hot. They were trying hard. But achieving little. Until team member Ben Hunt-Davis declared a new and simple training strategy.
The team would ask and answer – at every decision – point the question: Will it make the boat go faster?
Each answer to this question informed everything – from how they slept, ate, trained, partied, selected equipment, and on and on.
This one small, simple question delivered life-changing results. Because suddenly they no longer needed to find the big unicorn strategy that would reinvent their performance. They simply needed a better way to make all their decisions. In service of a meaningful outcome.
As we think about the current state of the workplace – and what all we’re wading through (you know – great gloom and burnout and overwhelm and disconnection…) I think this story offers us the 4 smartest questions we can all be asking ourselves whenever we’re in a moment that feels heavy or slow or overwhelming or just uninspiring.
Let’s talk about them.
1. Do you have the right rowers rowing?
Because when you have the wrong people in the boat, it’s never gonna cross the finish in time. You need all your stars in position.
I ran a Pulse Check recently for a retail organization. And one thing that kept coming up was how many of their key initiatives just take forever to get over the finish line.
Sometimes they’re held up by slow decision-making, sometimes it’s about not having all the resources they need, other times they get something 80% finished only to receive feedback that sets them back to zero.
Whatever the circumstances, it’s all super frustrating to them.
The root of all of these problems is that they don’t have the right rowers in the boat.
Like they’ll bring a key decision to a meeting, but the person who needs to make the decision isn’t there.
Or the Sales team starts a project only to realize later they’re going to need support from the Operations team to get it done… but Operations isn’t available to do their part because no one consulted them.
Or they’re building the thing and then getting feedback, when they should be getting that feedback upfront in the planning phase.
All of this comes back to the importance of being thoughtful upfront about who you’ll need in your boat to get to the finish line.
At the start of a project, ask yourself: who needs to collaborate? Who needs to decide? Who needs to be bought in? And make sure you invite them in at the starting line.
2. Are the rowers all rowing together?
Next up, we have a priorities and alignment issue. Because the best rowers in the world won’t get the boat across the line if they’re not rowing totally in synch with each other.
So as you’re feeling overwhelmed by projects feeling slow… are you aligned with all of your collaborators?
One issue that arose in this Pulse Check was that the Sales and Operations teams were actually chasing two totally different goals. Sales believed the goal was as many sales as possible. Operations believed the goal was profitability (which sometimes meant saying no to a low-dollar sale).
This turned into arguing, and an unwillingness to share resources between teams. Which will not just slow but might even sink a boat.
At the start of a project – make sure all the participants (or rowers) can articulate the same set of goals and priorities, And that you’re all steering toward them.
3. Is the boat as light as it could be?
Next, your best rowers all rowing together are unlikely to win if someone left their luggage in the back of the boat.
So if things are heavy or sluggish at work… if burnout is chasing you around then ask yourself – are we carrying something extra?
· Are you holding onto complicated processes that really could be simplified?
· Are you being pulled into too many meetings that you aren’t positioned to contribute to?
· Are you adding priorities onto your plate without first clearing some off?
In other words, are you letting inefficiency, or unnecessary complication slow you down? Let it go!
4. Are the rowers properly fueled and energized?
Because, finally, the best rowers in the world won’t get it done on an empty tank. And the same goes for you.
Is your team doing what it needs to do to keep energy and spirits high?
Are you finding ways to bring new voices to the table to infuse some creativity?
Are you taking breaks, shutting down after hours?
Are you being proactive at expressing gratitude and just recognizing people for their contributions?
Are you setting aside time just for fun? For catching up, connecting, talking about your latest Netflix binges?
Our energy matters. We need to keep fuel in our tanks, and joy on the agenda.
So I ask you. How’s your boat moving these days? Do you have an opportunity to make it go faster? And if I can help you find it – shoot me a note. Rachel@leadabovenoise.com
Join me next week for another great episode. Until then, visit my website at leadabovenoise.com if your organization is looking to crack its activation code- dialing up performance and engagement. You can follow Modern Mentor on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Find and follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks so much for listening and have a successful week.
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