Achieving big things, together

I love big goals and challenges. After all, they often represent the biggest opportunities. I am energized by audacious goals, especially ones that I can measure.

Accomplishing anything demanding does not happen in a vacuum. No person is an island, including me. Everything I do is made possible by the people around me. Teams are critical, as are the customers we serve and support.

Over the years, I've learned a lot about how to work with others to get things done. Like many of you, I’ve read books, received coaching, and learned from others to improve myself.

Some of these lessons really stick with us. For me, two books have been my guideposts. They help me whenever I am faced with forming something new, scaling a business, or influencing people both internal and external to an organization.

Lessons of teamwork: The Boys in the Boat

The first of these books, The Boys in the Boat, is very personal for me.

My son rowed as captain of his varsity high school team. He made his father proud but getting there was a struggle. Our genes didn’t produce a 180-pound, 6'4" male. However, our wonderful 5'11", 140-pound 15 year old had the sweat, tenacity and grit to help him make it.

The Boys in the Boat tells the story of a scrappy rowing team from the University of Washington and how they beat all others to represent the United States at the Olympic Games in Berlin. (1) It’s an inspirational story that stays with you.

I was introduced to this sport for the first time through my son’s involvement and have since learned to row myself. It's a great workout, burning a lot of calories. (2) Also, to succeed, perfect unison is critical. Speed matters. Power matters. But most important of all, attitude prevails.

The same can be said for a work team. The right attitude is critical. A positive, focused mindset brings better collaboration – and better results for all of us.

“It takes energy to get angry. It eats you up inside. I can’t waste my energy like that and expect to get ahead.” – character Joe Rantz, in The Boys in the Boat (1)

The book also talked about two factors critical to the success of a rowing team – power and stroke rate. (1) The former is pretty straightforward, and the latter is about the team’s ability to work in synch. Balancing the two can be challenging – how long can a team maintain a certain level of power while maintaining unity of movement?

In a typical race of a few minutes, each of the 8 oarsmen makes 300 strokes. And if only one boy muffs one of those strokes, also known as catching a crab, the race is effectively over for the whole team. In races against competitors, the other teams would grind at 38 strokes per minute, while the boys maintained a relaxed rate of 31 to keep pace. Then, near the end of the race, the boys turned on the power together, surging to 38 and then 40. (1)

As the boys trained together, they were able to maintain the coordinated rowing movements for longer, so that they could turn on the power together for a strong finish.

Our ability to achieve consistency as work teams makes us better together. Power is not enough to be the best. We need reliability of performance. It will make you succeed, and as a bonus, it will benefit everyone around you, too!

So, it almost goes without saying, we must work together while rowing or working as a team to go in the same direction. Working hard isn’t enough – we need to work in harmony and care for each other.

“What mattered more than how hard a man rowed was how well everything he did in the boat harmonized with what the other fellows were doing. And a man couldn’t harmonize with his crewmates unless he opened his heart to them. He had to care about his crew.” (1)

Do you know how your colleagues are faring? Are you caring for each other? In this difficult time, it is easy to get mired in the constant flow of challenges. Don’t forget to connect with each other in human ways. We all need the support right now.

Switch: How to change things when change is hard

This second book talks about influence, including the kind of influence we often must exert when we are making big changes in a business. Switch reveals that we need to understand what appeals to our hearts, not just our minds.

The book used a powerful visual analogy to discuss the idea of achieving big change. It compared the idea of change to a person riding an elephant down a path. The rider represents our mind, which understands the why and what of change. The elephant represents our emotions, because if the emotions overwhelm, no amount of influence from the rider will change the elephant’s actions. Finally, the path (the direction and goal) can either be very difficult (windy, uphill, long) or easier (downhill, short segments with rewards). (3)

Like me, most of us are used to using rational, analytical approaches at work. Switch doesn’t tell us to ditch that, but to recognize both sides, the emotional and analytical. The book uses examples to help us remember that emotions can overwhelm rational thought and that overthinking things can prevent us from making decisions. This section particularly spoke to me:

“…in most change situations, managers initially focus on strategy, structure, culture, or systems, which leads them to miss the most important issue: The core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people, and behavior change happens in highly successful situations mostly by speaking to people’s feelings.” (3)

I frequently revisit the idea of the rider and the elephant when working with my teams and colleagues. How can I speak to them in a way that engages both the rider and the elephant? Am I recognizing that my teams might be exhausted, not angry? Or maybe their emotions are overwhelming the rational right now.

Another great idea in the book that stuck with me is the idea that, when trying to make a big change, make the problems smaller and work incrementally on them. By doing this, we are shaping the path for the elephant and rider. (3)

Yes, there is a lot to do. Yes, it seems overwhelming. But if we break these massive goals up into smaller ideas with rewards and celebrations, we can make progress on them.

Each of these ideas is represented by three phrases worth remembering. In fact, I once engraved these three phrases on the back of an iPad, so I could refer to them daily:

1.   Direct the rider

2.   Motivate the elephant

3.   Shape the path (3)

These concepts are familiar to many of us; however, I love the practical and memorable ways the authors used to outline the concepts. And, whenever I am in the midst of forming something new or enacting large changes, I go back to these powerful ideas.

Read these books! You will relate as I did.

We’re in this “boat” together, working toward the big, seemingly unattainable goals.

And in our efforts to help bring others with us on this journey: It’s not about the logical, but the emotional connections we make with our peers, customers, and partners to be the BEST.

There is no room for second place.

Stay safe, everyone! And do great things.

(1) Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown, Penguin Books, 2013

(2) “Training Advice,” British Rowing https://www.britishrowing.org/knowledge/rower-development/training-advice/ and “Adult Rowing,” Belmont Rowing Center https://www.belmontrowingcenter.org/Default.aspx?tabid=483608

(3) Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Broadway Books, 2010