Car Thoughts: The Rhythm of Good Business

Once in a while, I will write short blogs called Car Thoughts. As the name suggest, these are thoughts I have on a car ride. Looking out the window, it’s a good time to reflect.

Today’s thought is Rhythm. It’s difficult to describe in words but you know it when you see it.

I had this thought sitting in a cab in Paris and I think it relates to business. We drove through the Arc de Triomphe round about in the middle of the day. We cut from the outer lane to the inner lane in front of 5 cars, circled the round about, then did the same to exit the round about. I write “lane” but there weren’t even clearly marked lanes. We were seemingly just cutting drivers off. Coming from the US, I was expecting horns blasting but everyone just went along. I’m sure there are rules of the road but I didn’t see any. I just saw a rhythm to their driving patterns that everyone around understood.

I am reminded of good basketball. There are times when basketball teams go on a 15 point scoring run while holding the opponent to 0 points. The 15 points could come from one person that’s in rhythm, where every shot is just going in. But on defense, you can only hold the other team scoreless when your defensive system is in sync. Everyone, the system, is in rhythm. It’s hard to describe how it happens; something intangible clicks and everything goes right.

Every city needs to put laws in place as the foundation for peaceful behavior. In basketball, you have set plays so players can know what to expect. These “rules” and “plays” are similar to the structure of a company. You have an org chart, policies, decision making process, etc. All are important to a well run business but none of these make a company great.

I’ve had the blessing to sit in a startup’s office and just watch them operate. Often it’s business as usual but occasionally you see a group of people operating at another level. One person has a light bulb moment, coherently communicates the idea to the team; a second person using her expertise builds off the first idea; the third person pulls a fourth person into the meeting and suddenly they’re off to the races, defining product, features, roadmap, resource allocation, etc.

What creates the seamless rhythm of high functioning teams? Many factors and at the core, I believe it’s the collection of self motivated A+ players with unique skills and respect for each other.

• Self motivated - You buy in to the vision and feel a strong desire for to make it reality.
• Unique skills - Your superpower, your team counts on you for this because you’re the best at it.
• Respect - You’re a good teammate, you want to work with your team because you respect them.

Leaders should think about how to maximize the time their team is operating in rhythm. The levers at their disposal are recruiting the right people, building the right structure, establishing the right culture, and mentoring the right way. At the center is the people, everything else must be custom to the unique people you brought together.