There isn’t a coordinated bone in my body. That is one reason I am always amazed when my daughter lines up at the head of a tumbling track and, in ten seconds or less, flips, cart wheels, spins and hand springs her way fifty feet down the track while sticking the landing on a 2 inch wide white stripe.
For a parent, a gymnastics meet means four hours of travel and sitting to watch your child perform for a total of about 2 minutes. If you saw my daughter at home and on the tumbling track, you’d think they are two different people. One has a short attention span, can’t keep up with her stuff and forgets minor things like homework assignments. The other is disciplined, focused and on time.
As I watched her routine at the last meet, I really thought about how she managed to pull of a medal-worthy performance. Three times a week she goes to practice. From watching practice, I know she pays attention to the coach. On meet day, she makes sure she has everything she needs packed and ready to go. At the beginning of the tumbling run, she pauses, visualizes success and focuses on the goal. Then she executes just as she planned. She runs about 15 feet, plants her hands on a white line and begins with a cart wheel. During the next 50 feet, the forces of spinning, flipping and cart wheeling all conspire to knock her off the little white line. At the end, however, she sticks the landing right on the 2-inch wide white stripe and smiles at the judges as if it was nothing.
After her 10 seconds on the track, I returned to my seat to pass a little more time until her next activity. As I sat there, my mind began to wander. I guess it is only natural that I began to compare her tumbling run to business. In my wandering mind, I saw similarities between a tumbling routine and executing an annual plan. Her run up to the white line became the fourth quarter. The 50 feet of tumbling was the next year and every element of the routine became a business activity. Sticking the landing meant meeting annual objectives – on time and on budget. As I thought about this, I drew parallels between how my 12 year old handles a tumbling run and how a seasoned executive leads a company through its annual plan. For example:
Practice – My daughter practices every maneuver over and over until it is second nature. In between practices, she spends a lot of time on the backyard trampoline. In business, we call it training. We train customer service representatives, assembly line workers and financial managers. Successful companies keep the training fresh. If a company’s plan is to be accomplished, everyone needs the knowledge that enables them to contribute.
Coaching – Feedback and encouragement are important to my daughter. The coach gives her both. He also sets well understood expectations. The same is true for the business team. The annual plan needs to set expectations for company and individual performance. Along the way, coaching can help the team stay on the white line.
Planning – Well before the meet, the well practiced maneuvers are choreographed into a 50-foot tumbling sequence. In business, this is the annual plan – stringing together strategies, tactics, resources, measurements and goals.
Vision and Focus – At the start of the tumbling run, my daughter pauses at the start and visualizes the routine. She then focuses on a point down the track and starts her well-planned routine. The same applies to business. The companies that pause before the beginning of the year and ensure that everyone on the team knows the plan and goals are more likely to stick the landing at the end.
Momentum – My daughter’s run up to the white line gives her the momentum to carry her through the tumbling routine. The fourth quarter is the run up to the start of a new year for a business. It is the time to begin moving in the right direction and gather the momentum that will give the company a head start on the new year.
Balance – A tumbling routine includes all sorts of spinning and feet-over-head moves that can easily through someone off track. An experience gymnast knows how to maintain balance and counter act forces that might knock her off the white line. A successful business is similar. People, skills, facilities, institutional knowledge and many other resources can work together to keep the company moving forward and “on the white line”.
Measurement – At the end of the run, my daughter gets immediate feedback for two kinds. First, she knows if she is on the white line or nor. Secondly, the judges tell how she did. In business, you can’t wait until the end of the annual run to access performance. Then again, business has more than 10 seconds to act. Well run businesses use performance indicators and assessments that tell them if they are on the line and, if not, how to correct.
Celebration – At the end of the great run, the smile on a kid’s face is absolutely genuine. The coach is right there to say well done. Gymnast and coach both take a little time to celebrate before turning attention to the next competition. Good businesses also take time to celebrate success and use it to sustain momentum.
We’re in the fourth quarter now. How is your “run up” to 2007 going? Is a well understood plan in place for 2007? Have you taken time to visualize success and do people know where to direct their focus? Does everyone have the training needed to perform in next year’s competition? Will your team have momentum going into Q1 and the balance to stay on track? Have key performance indicators been identified along with measurement techniques? Are you ready to celebrate success along the way and in twelve months? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, now is the time to start. A gold medal performance doesn’t just happen. Like a medal-worthy tumbling run, it is the result of many little things done right.
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