Transforming your Business: 5 Lessons from Adventure Racing

As the countdown to the race-start begins, my excitement and apprehension start to rise. With me there are nearly three hundred adventure racers in teams of four awaiting at the start line. For the next 48 hours, we will be paddling, hiking, swimming, running, mountain biking, abseiling and orienteering in the vastness of nature’s playground pushing our physical and mental limits until we reach the finish line.

There is no hiding from the challenge I have just undertaken. On one side, apprehension of the unknowns and the other excitement of the adventure ahead. In a way, this is akin to transforming a business.

Start with the end in mind

A 48-hour adventure race will test your mental and physical limits especially when you are suffering from sleep deprivation and exhaustion. Even before you start the race, you need clarity of purpose in doing the race. Your true reason is much more than just finishing the race. It may be that you are fulfilling your need for a challenge, raise funds for a worthy cause, camaraderie or personal growth. You need to have a strong enough of a ‘why am I doing this?’ to break through difficult moments. It is your commitment to the purpose that will see you through the challenges.

Similarly, a leader must clearly articulate the ‘purpose’ of embarking on a transformation journey. Your reasons for transforming the business may be due to growth stagnation, product proliferation, commoditisation or changing markets. However, these reasons alone cannot be used to define your purpose. Your purpose should be much broader. It should encompass what your finish line looks like and what people can expect beyond that. This picture should be colourful with clarity and precision. It is the purpose that will capture the hearts and minds of people and their commitment to endure journey.

Go after skills, not just talent

When selecting an adventure racing team, diversity of competencies plays a big part. You need someone with strong leadership skills with a wealth of experience to lead the team. Each member of the team will have a specialised set of skills and experience in one or more disciplines such as paddling, rafting, mountain biking, orienteering, hiking, running, mountaineering and abseiling. While all four members are capable of doing all the disciplines but during each segment of the race, the person who has the most skills and experience related to that particular section will guide the team.

Similarly, business transformation requires a unique set of competencies. Therefore, as a leader embarking on a business transformation, it is critical that you define the capabilities and skills set you need well ahead of the journey. The most talented person doing a business-as-usual work may not be the most suitable one for a transformation work. Therefore, go after the skills rather than just talent. Similar to an adventure race, you do not have time for experiments in a business transformation journey. You need people who are ready and raring to go.

The Navigator

Adventure racing is all about efficiency of movement. The race course is not marked, and checkpoints are the primary scoring mechanism. Your team will receive a map with a bunch of checkpoints marked and labelled on it. The aim is to cover as many checkpoints as possible and as quickly as possible before the race cut-off time. Finding the checkpoints is a mental challenge as much as physical in the vastness of the unforgiving terrain. At times, it is similar to finding a needle in a haystack. This is where the role of a strong navigator becomes crucial. A navigator is someone regularly reading the territory using a compass and a map (no GPS) to find the most efficient route to each checkpoint spending least amount of energy and time.

Similar to the checkpoints in an adventure race, on a transformation journey you have milestones to achieve. Business transformation can be a complex and at times a nerve-wracking undertaking. However, you can simplify it by breaking it up into clearly defined milestones and the most efficient routes to those milestones. To do this, a transformation leader needs a good navigator. Hence, the role of a strong Program Manager comes into play. Program Manager should have a good sense of the business and industry, and is not your typical Project Manager.

Leadership depth

As much as each member of the adventure racing team has a unique set of skills, they also can step into the leadership role out in the wilderness if the situation demands. It may be due to the Team Leader got injured, fell sick or merely tired. During this time, someone in the team will need to step up to lead the team.

In a business transformation journey, a leader may be confronted with similar situations. A transformation team needs to have leadership depth to maintain continuity of the mission. The nature of the voyage is such there is little latitude to stop-start as it can be costly and disruptive to the business.

Comfortable with unknown

When you tread into the vastness of nature’s playground, there is only one thing you are guaranteed: no one has control over the environment. On one side, you are awestruck by the sheer beauty of the sun rise, sun set or stars strewn skies in the dark night. On the other hand, you are exposed to all the elements. At times, things do not go as expected. Adventure racing is all about embracing the unknown and being comfortable with the uncomfortable. Risk management plays a big part where you are always prepared for the worst case scenario.

Similarly, a journey of business transformation even with the best program management will take you down paths less travelled. There will be ‘wow’ moments and then there will be moments of despair. Your transformation program should provide flexibility to respond to previously unforeseen events. This could be previously unidentified stakeholder impact or higher than expected system build effort requiring significant detour from the original plan. Occurrences like these are not unusual, but you should be comfortable with the unknown.

You should have an active program risk management strategy in place. Go through ‘what if’ scenarios to proactively identify and better manage any risks.

Are you ready for your transformation adventure?