Finding New Rhythms in Crisis

What I learnt from my Dean Waugh crisis

I’m playing a One-Day cricket match on a hot day at Campbelltown Oval for my grade club East Torrens in South Australia. I’m bowling first change in batting-friendly conditions. The batsman is the third Waugh brother - Dean. Apparently, the best batsman of all the brothers (for the sake of the story let’s just say he is 😉).

My first ball is hit over cover for six runs. For non-cricket people, all you need to know is that this is the most difficult shot to hit in cricket. My next ball goes for four runs. Then six again….

I am in trouble. I have only bowled three balls and I am in Survival Mode. My mate fielding next to me hands me the ball and just says “get out of the over!”. In other words, it is all about damage limitation now.

What happened next was more big hits. The captain gave me another chance to bowl the next over. It was just as bad. I got smashed. And that was it for me that day.

I remember the feeling at the time – even twenty years later. This guy owned me. I felt helpless. I felt tiny. I felt powerless.

I will never forget that feeling.

A worldwide Pandemic could not be more different than a game of cricket. But, within the context, Dean Waugh was a huge wave I was not ready for. And Co-Vid19 is a huge wave none of us could have comprehended a few weeks ago. The way he obliterated my bowling on that sunny Adelaide afternoon is how this virus has obliterated our plans, our way of life, and our entire way of life!

What I learnt from this low point in my cricketing career, was first, that I needed to be better prepared. I needed to have, what one of my mentors told me at the time ‘a mechanism’. A go-to strategy that I could use to make sure I did survive when a supreme challenge came my way. To make sure I could curtail the pain. Get through. And then rebuild from there.

I feel this is what many of us are facing currently. We need to have a mechanism to get through and be ready to rebuild once the worst has passed.

We may have been shunted from our daily cycles of business and life. It has been a dramatic shunt (a gross understatement I know). But there are new cycles that will emerge, and new rhythms we can find and start to groove into the way we work.

I have studied and developed the principals of rhythm, which tells us there are three main pillars we need to focus on:

1. Technical Skills – what are the new skills you need in this new world we are facing? Prioritise them and get to work on them.

2. Analytical Skills – find alignment throughout your business - New Mission, New Milestones, New Measures, New Movers, and New Moments. This forms your new strategy.

3. Social Skills – the new ways to interact and utilise the HAT Competencies – Humility, Audacity, and Tenacity. Have no doubts – it is the Humility skill sets that will set the tone for how we come out of this.

The Building Blocks Of Rhythm

In the Military, they call it a Battle Rhythm. It is their edge. Their competitive advantage. For us, we can use the pillars of Rhythm to find our new ways of working and new ways to solve new problems.

It’s time to stay safe, hold our nearest and dearest close. And, for those of us that can, we need to get to work to find our Mechanism. The quicker we do, the quicker we can get into rhythm and rebuild our momentum, for ourselves, our businesses, and our communities.