The Fragility of Isolation
Good work done inconsistently masks weak and unstable performance
You know that feeling when things are just happening for you. Things are coming easy. And you feel light as a feather. That thing I've mentioned before about ‘being in the zone’. Its one of the best feelings on the planet. I get this sometime when I’m playing golf. Occasionally, the club hits the ball sweetly. It sounds amazing. It feels brilliant! And the flight of the ball is straight and gentle as it penetrates the air with piercing speed. It is also controlled (the best a hack golfer like myself can hope for), but does not happen often.
Amateur golf is one of the hardest leisure activities you could play. It is a very difficult game to play well. Especially, when you don’t practice, don’t warm up before you play, and don’t play often. Yet, when you have those moments when everything is working, it almost seems easy. Dare I say a little boring. This feeling of superiority washes over you and you start to stand a little taller and smile a little more. Then, two holes later…. Shank! Bunker! Water Hazard! Four-Putt! If you know nothing about golf, you can assume these are all bad things. What makes them so irritating is the fact that you were playing well just a moment beforehand. Nothing has changed, yet the results have significantly fallen. I’m getting irritated just writing about it!
This situation happens to us a lot. We have moments of brilliance and excellence. But, it is fleeting and for some reason, it only happens occasionally. We search for common ingredients which leads us to create funny rituals like having ‘lucky underwear’ or carrying a lucky token in our pocket before a big game or a big presentation at work. The reality is that none of these things truly make a difference. In our workplaces, this sort of experience can be felt exactly like the situation above for the many amateur golfers out there. Our own performance is variable from day to day or task to task. Or it may come in a different guise…
Maybe there is excellence in one section of our team where one or two performers are brilliant at what they do. But, everyone else continues to struggle.
Maybe there is a particular aspect of our team’s work that is done exceptionally well, but the rest of the work is done inconsistently or is error strewn.
Maybe some projects are completed on time, on budget, and with a high level of quality while other projects lag and are interrupted with multiple pain points.
This inconsistency is experienced commonly. In fact, in my experience, most of the marketplace find themselves in this scenario. Some indicators of a team (or an organisation) suffering from this inconsistency include:
A lot of good hard-working people are doing their best and keeping the business afloat. Results just above break even point or just on (or around) planned targets.
Just enough promotions or marketing campaigns are classified as successes that pull the business through from year to year.
A brand has a hero product or product range that is responsible for the lion’s share of revenue and is leveraged to prop up results.
There are a handful of key clients that are heavily invested in compared to all the other clients.
The Return On Effort Game shows the journey from Extinction to Synchronisation. Isolation is a common place for many organisations. Results are okay, but are coming at high cost and in many ways is not sustainable. (More on ROE)
What is happening in all of these scenarios is that business is ticking along and results are being posted. But, they are flimsy and are being achieved through extreme hard work. With such an inconsistency in where the results are coming from there is a huge amount of effort that is continually poured into the weak areas of the business. With this comes frustration, cloudiness, and confusion. There is also pressure.
Lowered motivation can follow with lethargy and fatigue. Much like a tough day out on the golf course!
Honesty and awareness around this is enough to create constructive conversations and ease tensions people are feeling. And, solutions can be invested in to stablise things and reduce isolated performance.
