Marathon Lessons for Business Projects

The quick reason for my first article is that I’m running my first marathon in April this year, and I’m using it as an opportunity to raise money for Sarcoma UK. However a glorified begging letter isn’t that appropriate for this website so I thought about some of the lessons I am learning during the training process and how they could be relevant for organisations. If you don’t have time for the full read, but want to donate to a very worthy cause, then pop over to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/greg-houfe2.

For many years I would watch the London Marathon on TV and be inspired by the thousands of runners grinding out the miles and participating in such a fantastic event. Every year I would think I’d love to do that, and then the reality of time, effort, fitness, and general life distractions would get in the way and the idea would disappear for another year.

Well this year I ran out of excuses (no pun intended). With my currently leisurely approach to working life, I had the time. With lots of cycling and even a Great North Run under my belt, I had the base fitness. The only thing that was not on my side was the advancing years so the window of opportunity would not stay open forever.

So having decided to act, and now with a few months of training under my belt, the parallels between this and business projects have become more visible.

Motivation

Firstly the motivation. What is actually driving me to do this and is it powerful enough to keep me on track? I had time and enough fitness to make me think that I needed a challenge. In addition, there was a window where this would work. Age has been mentioned, but there was also the desire to have a focus over the winter months and have it done early in the year before other priorities kicked in.

Therefore my primary objective was to use my resources and capabilities to their best effect over a period when they could have been underutilised. This was very much the “head” taking the lead. The desire to do a marathon was driven by the “heart” as I recognised the emotional reaction I got every time I saw other people do it, and this was my chance of tapping into that.

You could argue that the “head” could have been satisfied by simply joining a gym. But without a goal in mind, driven by the “heart”, I know that attendance just for the sake of it would have withered away quite rapidly.

When you are thinking about a project, are you clear about the drivers and whether there is the right mix of “head” and “heart” reasons?

The opportunity presented by a marathon to raise money for a charity that is important to me emerged as a secondary objective. When I saw how much you needed to raise to secure a charity place on the London Marathon I immediately felt it was a barrier (to me) and could sense my appetite for the challenge wane. When I saw there were still places available to enter the Manchester Marathon without the need for donations I was sold and signed up straight away.

Yet I have set up a charity page, for Sarcoma UK, and it’s for 2 reasons. Firstly, having secured my place in a race, it offered the chance to raise money for an important cause which is personal but without there being too much pressure on me to hit a target or indeed the donating public (who get tapped up every time) feeling obliged to support me. Secondly, I felt that I may actually need a little pressure to make sure I continue the training and complete the distance.

It seems rude at this point not to remind you of the website where you can donate should you feel the desire: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/greg-houfe2.

So what are the parallels to draw at this stage? It’s recognition of the different motivations and drivers that need to be understood that relate to different stakeholders and possibly different times within a project life cycle. I know I will constantly need to sell the idea to myself to get out of bed and run in the rain and up the hills. Similarly a business needs to constantly sell the idea of the project to first secure resources, and then keep those resources in place throughout delivery when other demands are made.

Owning the plan

Now we are into the training. The obvious and basic parallel to any project is to have a plan. I could have just started running and seen where it got me, but that was likely to end in boredom, injury and general disarray. I had used a plan for my half marathon which worked so there was no reason to doubt that finding the right plan for a full marathon would be equally helpful.  

What is useful to remember is that I am not the first person to run a marathon, and equally you may not be the first person or business to attempt to do what you are trying to deliver (putting to one side the true innovators out there). I was able to find plenty of training programs, many free, some paid for. With an honest appraisal of my start point and objective, I could quickly find a free, tried and tested format (from a well-known running magazine and website) that was more than adequate for my needs. It allowed me to say how long I had to train, how often I could train, what my current capability was, and therefore what a realistic goal was. Basically I was on a well-trod path, and therefore could benefit from accumulated knowledge of the runners that had gone before me.

If I was tempted I could have bought a personalised training plan, I could have invested in a coach throughout the “journey”, basically I could have spent (wasted?) a lot of money simply to be told either things I could not use (because I am not good enough), or things I could access for free.

The key word in creating an effective plan is honesty. Honesty in understanding current capability, honesty in setting realistic goals, and honesty in what you get for any investments during the project delivery.

Despite it looking like I simply found myself an off the shelf plan and got on with it, I did personalise it. Breaks needed when I knew I’d be away. Extra weeks built in to allow for injuries. Bonus weeks (if I remained injury free) filled in with extra training to meet my personal objective of doing the distance before the race (many marathon plans peak at 20 miles as the longest training run).

What if - Contingency

This personalisation is important as it made me own the plan and understand better how it was building toward race day, and where the slack really existed. It also made me start 5 weeks earlier than I had to in order that I wouldn’t get stressed if I got an injury or something else got in the way. The slack does not remove the pressure to adhere to the plan, rather it avoids enforcing shortcuts should a problem occur. If I had to run more frequently or for longer to catch up on missed training sessions, it would only increase the chance of injury or non-completion of the race. 

Contingency in projects is always a debate at the outset, whether it is securing the time or the extra investment. You of course need processes to ensure the contingency isn’t wasted, but to not have it in place assumes the world is a perfect place and nothing goes wrong. There are too many examples of this not being the case to argue with any conviction for zero contingency.

How much contingency you build in is based on judgement and compromise. What are the known risks to a project? How long would it take to recover if those risks were to occur? How likely are the risks? Just as you should not have zero contingency, equally no one can or should build in slack to cover all possible eventualities. If something dramatic happens beyond expectations, then you have to accept the project is potentially compromised. For example I allowed 5 weeks extra on a 20 week plan to cover for the odd tweaked muscle. I have not worried about what would happen should I break a leg slipping on black ice. If I was concerned about that, all I could have done is buy the “injury cancellation insurance” alongside the entry fee to cover for such an eventuality.

Maintenance of resources

You may be getting the impression that I don’t like spending money (please stop nodding in the back), but it is more the case of being happy it is spent wisely. Some spend was non-negotiable such as the new pair of trainers at the start of the training.

Other investments were rejected such as a gait analysis on the basis that I am Slow Farah rather than Mo Farah and I did not have the time to retrain my running action. Yet I will be investing in a couple of sports massages in the next few months. Very nice I hear you say, but so what.

The "so what" concerns maintenance of the resources needed to deliver the project. Alongside the training plan which sets out the target distance and speed for each run, there is also a plan for stretching before and after runs, and strength exercises. I know my body is aching, and a few times there have been specific issues to address with ankles, knees and some muscles I hadn’t realised existed. However there is also the risk of a build-up of fatigue or tightness in certain muscles which increases the risk of them giving up on me when I need them most. Therefore on top of my regime of daily maintenance on the muscles, I will be investing in massages to make sure everything is in order.

I could just wait for an issue to arise, and then go to a physio to treat it, but that is likely to take longer (and be more expensive). So the parallel is how you look after your own resources on projects. Daily check-ins are important of course, but they don’t always address issues that may be building up slowly. You need to allow time (and investment) to have deeper dives into progress and the state of the team in order that things are spotted and addressed before they cause a bigger problem down the line.

Go To Market

A final point to mention at this stage is the race day itself, the launch. All the training would be wasted if I turned up late, or didn’t have the race number with me. At this stage, 3 months away, some of those details seem trivial and can wait. However, given the early start and the distance to travel from home, I needed accommodation, just like many of the other 20,000 runners so I booked a hotel room as soon as I had my entry confirmed. The parallel here is about the “Go To Market” plan.

What this means is that it is sometimes easy to get fixated on creating the new thing, be it a new product or process, and you forget what you need to do to launch it successfully. This is not just the communications via marketing or internal communications, but it’s also the impact on other areas. Will some areas have suffered from a lack of attention during the project (I know my cycling will have taken a back seat) either deliberately or by accident? Will your internal and external audiences have their expectations altered for other products or process that may not have changed in the same way? How do you address and explain the differences? How can you support the product going forward? Every project is different and thus the “Go To Market” will be different and require its own plan alongside your main project.

Summary

• Think about the different motivations behind a project and how you will need them throughout its life cycle, and how there should be a mix of the logical “head” reasons, and the emotional “heart” reasons.
• Make sure a plan is built and owned based on an honest appraisal of capability, resource availability and desired outcomes.
• Ensure that contingency is factored in based on a realistic sense of likely risks and their potential impact on the plan.
• Build in appropriate maintenance of the resources being used for the project, beyond simple daily catch ups, to ensure that the slow build-up of stresses doesn’t suddenly cause an issue when you least expect it or can handle it.
• Do not forget the “Go To Market” plan which should try and cater for the broader impact of a project’s delivery and make sure you don’t just have a new product, but it is fully embedded and aligned with all your other products, processes and policies.
• Finally, the main reason for writing this article was to highlight that I am raising money for Sarcoma UK, and though absolutely no obligation exists, it would be fabulous if you were willing and able to donate at: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/greg-houfe2.