Category Archives: Fitness

Discipline is Just a Routine

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“But, it is like pulling teeth to get them to change the way they have been working. They get started, but after a couple of days, things are right back to the way they were before.” Matt sighed one of those Manager’s sighs. “I just wish my team was more disciplined.”

“Matt, discipline is nothing more than routine. Discipline isn’t harder than any other way of getting things done; it’s just not what you are used to.” I had spied a workroom on my way in. It was a small room with some simple tools and a work bench, good lighting. It was where people took things that needed fixing. Not broken things, but rather, product defects. The seam didn’t line up quite right; there was a burr on an edge. Rather than documenting the defect and looking for a solution, the team had, over time, assembled this little “fixing” room.

“Tell you what, Matt. Hide the tools and put a padlock on the room.” I could see his eyes grow wide. “Then, have a meeting and tell everyone that the fixing room is off-limits for 21 days. During that time, have meetings twice a week to talk about the new documentation process. After 21 working days, you should have a new routine. Discipline is just a different way of getting things done.”

Matt was nodding, “So, after 21 days I can take the padlock off the “fixing” room?”

“No.”

Tour notes – Lance back in yellow.
Wearing the yellow jersey carries an unspoken behavior to defend the jersey. I am not sure Lance wanted it this early in the race, but the way the tour has unfolded, it just came sooner rather than later.

After four stages, Lance Armstrong carries a :55 second advantage over George Hincapie, his own teammate. The nearest non-team competitor, Jens Voigt, of Team CSC is :64 seconds behind in third place. The strategy at the moment for Team Discovery is to keep Lance safe from harm. Gaining more time will wait for the mountain stages to come later in the race. Read detailed coverage at www.olntv.com.

Tour Notes – Stage One

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Lance saw the rider ahead and became fixed on the target. Jan Ullrich had started :60 seconds ahead in the individual time trial, a race against the clock. As Lance approached, Jan might as well have been standing still. It was an awesome display of fitness. There is much ballyhoo about whose bike weighs the least, or the most precise aerodynamic position, but this race was about fitness.

Back at the office.
As managers, we look at our team members in several dimensions, product knowledge, technical skill, technique and attitude. Yet, often, success is determined by fitness, both physical and mental fitness. Team members pull ahead in their performance because they can. Others drop away or drag across the finish line.

Serious as a heart attack.
Do you have conversations with your team members about their physical health, nutrition, work-out routines and mental focus? One dimension of performance depends on fitness. As a manager, what do you demand from your team? What kind of example do you set? -TF

Saturday’s Prologue

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This Saturday begins the prologue to the 2005 Tour de France. Since I grew up in Austin, I have more than a passing interest in Lance Armstrong’s attempt at a seventh Tour win. Four riders in history have won five Tours, only Lance has won six. If he brings home a seventh, the earliest a newcomer could best that record would be year 2013.

While there is enormous respect for Lance, there is no shortage of riders committed to bring his streak to a screeching halt. Toppling Lance Armstrong would be an emotional maelstrom.

But who, and how?

What appears to be a mass of tires, spokes, and expensive carbon fiber all charging headlong to the finish is more precisely an intricate team sport, playing games with physics, wind resistance and muscle fatigue. Should Lance be beaten, it will NOT be by a single racer, but by a tight cohesive team, working together better than Team Discovery.

From July 2 through July 24, we will watch the drama. If you are a Manager in your organization, you will find principles of leadership, coordination, cooperation and challenge on the faces of world class athletes. There will be lessons for any team willing to learn. -TF

P.S. To watch live and same day coverage, tune to cable channel OLN. Listings can be found at olntv.com.

P.P.S. To read past posts about teamwork and cycling, follow the link to Managementblog’s homepage, scroll down the Category list and follow the link to Henrik’s Wheel.

Showing Up

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Curtis shook his head as he paced around his office. He wasn’t angry, just awestruck. “Five contracts,” he said, “We lost five contracts to those bozos, in the past two months.”

“What do they do, that you don’t do?” I asked.

“Nothing, that’s what gets me. We run circles around them with what we can do. We spent a $100,000 on a machine last year that does all kinds of stuff they can’t do.”

“What did the last client say?”

“I don’t understand it, the last client said that it was nothing special, that they just deliver a plain vanilla product. When they need it, it’s there.”

“And what’s the backlog on your delivery?” I prompted.

“Well, we are a few days out on our delivery, but look at our quality, it’s so much better,” replied Curtis.

Execution trumps a promise every time. Execution of a plain vanilla product on-time trumps late-delivery of a special product, every time.

Often, you don’t have to be special; you just have to show up. Didn’t Woody Allen say that? -TF

Getting Tough for Real

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Question:
Related to your discussion about Reserve Power. I understand not driving your team to the brink of exhaustion. But how do you build Reserve Power?

Response:
Building reserve power for a team would be like any athletic training. The point of athletic conditioning is to build either endurance or sprint power. Athletic conditioning uses drills which are planned and controlled. Here are some suggestions for drills to build reserve power with your team:

  • Cross training drills.
  • What-if drills.
  • Higher volume production drills.
  • All hands on deck drills.
  • Change order drills.
  • Change over drills.
  • Time Motion studies.
  • Broken machine/alternate machine drills.
  • One-person-short drills.

Because these are drills, they can be planned and anticipated. My favorite is the cross training drill. Announce that “the second Wednesday at 10:00am, these selected people will work a 2 hour period in another position. Between now and drill day, team members should prepare with short term training. ”

These drills build reserve power so when things get tough for real, your team can effectively respond to extraordinary demands. -TF

Harvey’s Hook

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The ball lifted off the tee, almost with a wobble before moving sideways from right to left, arching into moderate grass off the fairway. Harvey’s next swing was vertical, over his head, then smack into the turf at his feet.

“Who were you thinking of?” I asked.

“No one. What do you mean? It was just a lousy shot.”

“I mean your second swing. Who were you thinking of?”

“Ah, I was just letting off steam. I wasn’t thinking of anyone.”

“Well, if you were thinking of someone, who would it be?”

“I don’t know. I was thinking about the guy who taught me how to play. He would have been a little disappointed.”

“Who is this guy? Do I know him?”

“No, he was a pretty old guy when I learned. And I was only nine years old.”

“I was just curious.”

Kurt Lewin tells us that individual action is a myth. Our behavior is always influenced by groups or individuals, even if they are not physically present. To gain insight into a person’s behavior, all you have to do is find out what group or person the individual has in mind.

Who do you have in mind, that is affecting your swing? -TF

Bon-bons and Fried Calamari

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When I woke up, I knew I was in trouble. I had promised Henrik a 100 mile ride today and I was not in the right condition. The weather had been poor the previous week, so I had trained short. I was in sleep deficit by six hours over the past four days. I had slacked off my diet, eating bon-bons and fried calamari. Today would require peak performance and I was nowhere near my peak.

The warmup was easy, straight downwind with a 16mph tail. Holding an even 20mph pace was effortless. Fifteen miles into the ride, we made a u-turn at Las Olas and turned north, directly into the wind. A pace of 18mph into a wind of 16mph was a 34mph gentle breeze in the face. Hunkering into a compact profile, hiding between the condo towers swirling the blustery weather, we made our way mile by mile. It was just head down, holding cadence until mile 46.

That’s when my knee began a dull throb. I call it tennis elbow, but point to my knee. The pain makes you want to stop, but when you slack the pressure, the pain becomes worse, and we will had 54 miles to go. Our turn into the nose of the wind would last until mile 62.

I was looking forward to the West Palm Beach inlet turnaround. The wind, which had been our foe, would now become our friend. The 18mph pace had been slow and grueling. One mile short, Henrik spotted a pair of riders already traveling south. A week earlier, they had pulled Henrik up to Jupiter inlet. “If we can make the turn and come back to catch them, they can help us,” Henrik shouted to me. He was hammer down and I, behind, had no choice but to grit my teeth and go with.

We caught the pair, but they were on a Saturday recovery ride and in no mood to pick up the pace. Our efforts had moved us down the road, but we were on our own again and 40 miles from home. My legs hurt, my butt hurt, my knee hurt. It did not matter, I was still 40 miles from home.

At mile 85, the blustery skies opened up and it started pouring rain. Our agreement to seek shelter in the event of a storm was abandoned. We were too far along and only 15 miles to go. My glasses were spattered with rain drops and mud. The road grime on my jersey was melting away, the rear wheel throwing water and debris up from the backside. One hundred miles came none too soon. All I could think of was getting a hot shower.

Being a manager, often, the going gets tough. You have decisions to make, problems to work through, material shortages, work delays. Fitness, in my mind, is one of the six dimensions of performance. It has an impact on how well you perform, as a manager. How is your nutrition, how well do you sleep, how consistent is your training (yes, managers need to train)? When the going gets tough and peak performance is required, how close are you to your peak? -TF

Mastery

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“It is difficult to lead the charge if you think you look silly on top of a horse.”

I am often asked to describe the most important qualities of leadership. What does it take to make a good leader? There are many qualities. Today I am thinking of Mastery.

Mastery is the beginning of self-confidence. Many times, people believe they can pump themselves up with a motivational book or by attending a motivational seminar. While there are temporary positive feelings of invincibility, it doesn’t take more than a few hours back at the office for that to wear off.

True self-confidence begins with mastery. “Mastery over what?” Well, just about anything that requires some new degree of skill, anything that requires a person to truly push their performance beyond their current level of self-confidence. Most folks seldom push themselves beyond their current limits, for fear of failure. It is in the facing of that fear (fear of failure) that I see true growth, a new level of mastery. There can be no mastery without the possibility of failure.

When was the last time you truly pushed yourself beyond your limits? When was the last time you engaged in something new, something that required you to think in new ways that required more tenacity than you have ever mustered before? It isn’t going to come from a book. It isn’t going to come from a seminar. Get off the couch, go do something new. -TF

Fitness – The Ability to Pull It Off

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Dimensions of Performance

  • Capability (Mental)
  • History
  • Fitness
  • Attitude
  • Technique
  • Technical Knowledge

There it is, number three on the list. When I think about “performance,” and the things that impact performance, I always come back to this list. It makes for interesting thinking. You can guess at most of this stuff, but I get some sideways glances when I start talking about fitness.

Fitness comes at several levels, but the obvious is physical fitness and mental fitness. A team can have all the elements, but if they don’t have fitness, they will not be able to pull off the strategy. So, class members get that blank stare when I start talking physical fitness. The eyes glance from side to side. “He’s not talking about… being fat, is he?”

If the project calls for a ten hour day, can you work it and then go home with enough energy to be with your family? No way, unless you are in shape. Yes, I am talking about physical fitness, exercise and nutrition.

And mental fitness. What exactly is mental fitness? Is it:

  • Creating four alternative solutions to every question, to make sure we include unlikely possibilities.
  • Creating an argument for the other side when this side seems so obvious.
  • Pulling the team together for fifteen minutes to make sure we “check-in” before we make a major decision.
  • The discipline of using a consistent mental process for problem solving and decision making.
  • The discipline of concentration on a task until it is complete.
  • The discipline of follow-up on due date projects.
  • The discipline of have the difficult conversation when it is easy to avoid the confrontation.

Physical discipline and mental discipline go together and are critical for successful execution. Most companies do a fair job of planning and organizing. But if you want to crush your competition, get great at execution. To be great at execution, you need physical and mental discipline. I will take a mediocre plan well executed, anytime, over a great plan that is poorly executed. Where does your team stand on the fitness scale? —TF