Several years ago, I started doing Crossfit. A sport that arises from the combination of other disciplines: Weightlifting, gymnastic skills, and aerobic training. It easily hooks you because it offers the possibility to learn multiple exercises that require different difficulties and skills.

In my case, and it is something common, I felt driven to try to progress as quickly as possible. Being able to lift more and more weight in each exercise was perceived as the metric to follow. One hundred pounds, two hundred…  

Until the injuries started. Frequent, annoying, and even disabling.

1. What was the origin? The technique. An incorrect execution of movements. I punished and hurt my own body. Wanting to advance faster only made me spend more time inactive and frustrated. 

2. What advice did I receive? To focus on the foundational, the basics. And so I did, and for several months I returned with the goal of understanding and mastering the technique as much as possible. Less weight, more slowness, more attention.

3. What was the result? I began to perform better, get tired less during workouts, and lift even more loads with less effort. A better technique allowed for doing more with less, and above all, for now, to avoid injuries. Greater efficiency and performance.

A similar thing happens with organizations. We often seem to hurry to lift as much weight as possible. We implement methodologies or technologies expecting to get immediate results.

Implementing Agile methodologies, 4DX, OKRs, improving our usability, customer experience, incorporating Artificial Intelligence… Many are the examples where pressure, and other causes, have prevented many organizations from giving themselves the opportunity to improve their performance.

The three moments towards high performance

Every implementation requires phases. Following the same analogy, each of them should go through at least three moments.

1. Mastering the technique

This is the foundational moment. Not only because it involves dedicating time and resources to understand the new technology or methodology.

It is the moment that triggers more emotions and discomfort and requires being aware of them. We are learning. It is easy to feel clumsy, slow, inefficient, or even threatened and thus generate resistance to adoption.

Mastering the technique involves understanding concepts: Deconstruction, slow repetition, and feedback.

1. Deconstruction: Every process, method, or implementation has specific and identifiable parts. Being able to understand these moments makes it easier to address and work on each one independently.

2. Slow repetition: Mastering the technique involves repeating it. Slowly at first, becoming aware of each moment and its usefulness. Slowness is an advantage. It allows us to pay more attention to details for a longer time. The goal is to internalize, unconscious repetition. Natural execution.

3. Feedback: Reproducing the action over and over, adjusting those factors that are inefficient between each one. What happens? What works? What can change? Let’s repeat and adjust, first the parts, then the complete process.

For our teams, for example, understanding the method and its parts. If we talk about agility, we talk about Plannings, dailies, retrospectives… Trying to learn and improve one by one. Maybe we have to start by working on good plannings, then dailies, retros… Focus on them.

2. Increasing strength

Going back to our weightlifter, this is the moment to work with weight and start performing repetitions, whether generally or again on specific movements, and gradually increasing the ability to repeat with more load. 

In the organizational world, this would be equivalent to starting to execute projects while you work on the capacity to solve the problems and inconveniences that arise, and while we adapt it to the cultural conditions of the organization itself. Not everything learned will function exactly as theory indicates. 

3. High performance/Endurance

For an athlete, this is equivalent to performing those movements under pressure or at a high level. Maximum number of repetitions, at maximum intensity for a prolonged time, or executing the movement to the limit of personal records.

In our organization, it is comparable to, on one hand, talking about deadlines, delivering higher value in less time. Continuous improvement of the metrics or results of the organization or the team. On the other hand, talking about scale. How can we impact the rest of the organization implementing at cruising speed. 

Conclusion

These three moments are a way to adopt a method, but they are also the way to become aware of what maturity level our team is at and how much demand is applicable to it.  It is unlikely that a team that is just in the first phase will be able to achieve its best results, no matter how much we try to accelerate and push.

Our experience at bettter is that we often find organizations that, trying to go fast, are now dealing with frustration, and it could be said that they are on the bench and injured while other organizations are overtaking them.

Every process needs its time and patience, otherwise, it is very likely that the result of the implementation will fail or remain in a painful place. It is advisable to take the appropriate time and plan carefully how we will implement it, with which areas or teams, and finally how we will scale to the rest of the organization.

What is your experience implementing methodologies or technologies? Write to us at hello@bettter.co

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Important. Our writings are the result of our experience and work philosophy, as well as the result of the learning experiences in our lives and with our clients. They are experiences, ideas, and provocations. If you think they are useful to you, feel free to make them your own.

Photo by Josh Anaro