How goals, structures and patience combine to create the results you desire
“You’re doing it, you’re doing it! Well done son, you can ride your two-wheel bike. Woo hoo!”, I called with delight.
“Yeah! I can go for a run with you now Dad!”, called back my five year old son.
My son has had a goal to ride his bike without its training wheels sothat he would be able to go on a run with me. For nearly his entirelife his older brother and then his older sister have been going for arun with me (they ride their bikes while I run). Since he was three myfive year old son has asked, “Can I come too?”. “Yes, when you can rideon two wheels” has been my response.
Achieving this goal has required re-enforcement, a clear structure andpatience. The re-enforcement of the goal has occurred everytime my sonasked if he could come on the run with me. The structure has been therule that in order to ride his bike while I go running, he must be ableto ride on two wheels.
Patience has been present while I have waited for him to want to practice riding on two wheels.
After he would ask if he could come on a run with me I would ask,“Would you like to practice now? I’m happy to practice with you beforeI go on my run.”
Honestly, I don’t know how many times I asked that question over thepast two years only to hear, “Hmmm, not really. Maybe another day.”
I would always respond with a re-enforcement of his goal. “That’s okay.Just remember that if you want to come on a run with Daddy, then youhave to be able to ride your bike without your training wheels.”
I had learnt with his two older siblings that as soon as they were theones motivated to want to practice, then five days in a row of practicewould guarantee success. I regularly reminded my son about thisstructure as well. “When you decide that you are ready, we just needfive days in a row of practice and you’ll be able to ride your bike!”
As it happened he only needed three days! He was the one who said tome, “Come on Dad, I want to be able to ride my bike. I really want togo on a run with you!”. Broom stick in hand (which is a tool that I jamin behind the bike seat so that I can walk behind the bicycle andassist with balance), pedals off (turning the bicycle into a scooterwhich makes it easier and safer to learn how to balance) we went outinto our street to practice. About 15 minutes each day was all that wasrequired.
The goal and structures were easy to create. Maintaining patience wasthe most challenging part of this process. Not from his perspective,but from mine!
Relating this experience to leadership in the workplace
This is very similar to what often occurs in the workplace. Manyleaders expect that the new structures that they implement will produceimmediate results. Time delays are inevitable when change takes place.Performance may not improve, yet ‘time is ticking’. Unfortunately thisresults in many leaders not persisting with good programs andstructures. Instead, they declare that the current structure ‘obviouslydoesn’t work’, so they switch to something else. This creates a cycleof changing structures that produce no measurable performanceimprovements over time.
A simple example of this relates to the concept of using conversation starters (see How to stimulate conversations that matter)to create ‘conversations that matter’. The goal may be to create astrong sense of the organisation’s values on a day to day level atwork. The structure may be that the leader provides an example of thevalues in action as a hand-out to read before a team meeting. Themeeting agenda may also include a section on ‘Our values’.
When the first meeting is held the leader asks, “What were yourresponses to the story in the hand-out?”. Silence. The leader shiftsuncomfortably in their seat. The silence continues. So the leaderquickly moves on to another agenda item.
After the meeting the leader declares, “Well, that conversation starterstuff certainly didn’t work! I’ll never do that again.” Leaders oftendo the same thing when it comes to creating team ground rules for the first time. Sound familiar?
Just because a new structure doesn’t produce immediate results when youtry it, doesn’t mean that it won’t work. The important aspects toconsider are:
1) Does the structure align with the goals that you are trying to create?
2) What leadership skills are necessary to support the structure?
3) How will those skills be developed?
4) What was learned each time the structure was practiced?
As you develop your leadership skills and learn which structures aremost likely to produce the results that you desire, it is amazing howyou can also learn how to combine goals, structures and patience tomaintain focus even when performance doesn’t appear to be improving.But when it all comes together, the performance improvement can beexponential, just like the seemingly fast performance improvement thatmy son displayed when he finally started to ride his two-wheel bike.While it seemed fast, the final performance improvement occurred as aresult of patience over a long period of time, a clear goal andstructures to support that goal becoming a reality.
When you understand the interplay between these variables you discoverthat, ‘slower is faster’. Maintaining patience in the face of zeroperformance improvement can eventually create a performance improvementthat otherwise is unlikely to occur. Many leaders can become seduced bythe ‘sense of speed’ that often comes with trying something new, whichis why they keep changing structures without giving them the propertime to be successful. Your challenge is to be clear about what youwant to create, to develop structures to support your goals, to bepatient and to never stop learning.While it may seem slow, this processis often a faster way to achieve performance improvement.
What are your examples where goals, structures and patience have combined to create the results that you desire?
Please feel free to ask questions and to make comments on this article.
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