Teamership: LGLG

In The Culture Code , Daniel Coyle talks about the way that high performing and tight knit groups often have shorthand terms that remind them of what the group values. According to Coyle, these are belonging cues and “high-purpose environments are filled with small, vivid signals designed to create a link between the present moment and a future ideal.”

In a podcast that I have a mild addiction to, Chasing Scratch (a golf podcast that I will share more reflections on in coming weeks), there are many such phrases and signals between the hosts and us, the audience. One of my favourites is “LGLG”. It’s short for “let’s go, let’s go”.

According to their website, the intent of the Chasing Scratch podcast, is to document the process of “two friends in their early 40's with wives, kids, day jobs, and shaky 11 handicaps, as they try to reach the Holy Grail of golf: a scratch handicap.” LGLG summarises a lot about the hosts' approach to their pursuit of a goal that is important to them - the striving, the resilience, the energy that characterises so much about any pursuit of a meaningful goal.

The spirit of LGLG is relevant in our work. Almost every leader, team and organisation has unfinished business - something meaningful that they have set about achieving. For all of us in our teams, the aspiration of high performance (whatever that means in your context) can feel a bit like the pursuit of a Holy Grail. It is elusive, it is a worthy pursuit, but one that is almost certain to face challenges (large and small) constantly.

For that reason, the idea of LGLG is something worthy of cultivating in ourselves and in our teams. Learning to manage the tension between not being where you want to be, accepting where you are and putting energy into closing that gap is a great set of skills for all of us to develop.

The counterintuitive lesson that I have discovered through my extended summer break (dare I say, Mid/Late Summer Run!?), is that spending time away from my practice has helped me start the year both behind on tasks (which doesn’t feel great) and way ahead on mojo (which does feel great). It feels like a paradox, but I think that there is something in it. It is easy to think that our tasks are the only meaningful currency in our work - the more we do the better - but if we want sustained high performance, we need to be able to bring our best to those tasks.

What has worked for me was the subject of my last post of 2023 - a mix of passive and active recovery. There were definitely days that felt lazy and low key. I was also actively engaged with people, places and activity that energise me.

This is a lesson that I intend to carry on into 2024. It is incredibly tempting as someone who is almost their entire business to feel like stopping is too big a risk. When I am not working, there is no selling, thinking or delivering going on in the business. That thinking can drive many people (including me, often) to work ever longer and harder…there is often a train of thought that includes “if I don’t do this work now…:”

• “I’ll be further behind and possibly never get on top of my work”
• “we won’t achieve our goals”
• “I’ll let people down”
• “I may lose my job and experience all of the negative implications of that”

It is understandable, logical and perhaps even true on occasions. It is probably true a lot less often than most of us think. What is true more often than we realise is that the thing that we bring to our teams and our work that adds the most value is…us. Our energy, our perspectives, our experience, our best.

My experience over summer is that dedicated periods of high quality recovery have left me more energised, more clear, more focused and more ready to do great work in my practice this year than ever before. I intend to incorporate periods of high quality recovery (both passive and active) into my days, weeks, months and quarters. It is part of a commitment to sustainable high performance that is a version of my Holy Grail.

Next week, I will share some categories that can be useful as your teams consider how to do this. In the meantime, here are a few questions to consider:

• Can you and your team send better “small, vivid signals designed to create a link between the present moment and a future ideal”?
• How well do you and your teams incorporate high quality recovery into your routines and rhythms?
• What meaningful goals are you pursuing this year?

Go well…or perhaps this week, LGLG!

Keegan