Mindset is a Superpower.
Where you put your attention is where you put your energy.
Recently I was on a training ride with a group of teammates and two of our coaches. It was my first serious road ride back after my hit and run accident. About 55 miles into the ride, one of the coaches rode alongside five of us and said the following…
"Hey guys, just wanted to give you a heads up. In about 8 miles we are going to do a 'hot zone' sprint' in two groups. I want you guys to lead it out. The segment is about 10 miles long. I want us to break the time record. By a lot."
Then he gave us the time to beat.
All three of us knew this was going to require a supreme effort. A massive, 'I want to quit', 'I am dying' kind of effort.
Then the coach looked dead at at me. "Steve, do not doubt yourself. Do not think about the accident. That hit and run driver who left you for dead less than a year ago. Compared to that, this is nothing. Find your Flow guys. Then do what you know you can do."
He was talking about Igniting Flow.
Near the start of the hot zone the group stopped to get ready.
One of the coaches said something that surprised the three of us. "This hot zone is only about 6-7 miles long (it was 10.1 miles long). We have a time to beat in order to take third place but he didn't give the time.
He continued, "all I want you to do is remember your fundamentals. Everyone but you three (pointing at the group he'd talked to earlier), switch your headsets readouts to just maps. I don't want you focusing on speed or power. For the sprint group, just keep the cadence that is set. That's it.
For the chase group. Catch them (the lead group gets a 1 minute head start). Lead group, don't let the chase group pass you if they do in fact catch you."
And, off we went. He didn't want anyone obsessing on the numbers. Sometimes what is familiar can be a distraction from achieving the unexpected or uncommon.
We covered 10.1 miles in just under 16 minutes, averaging just at 40 mph.
A blistering pace, impossible if you told us the day before what we needed to do, going strictly by the numbers that is.
The chase group caught the back end of the lead group and together about half of the riders we started with pushed the remaining three in the lead group all the way to the finish.
Stopping at intersection just past the finished, gasping for air, we all listened to what our coach told us. "We broke the time record by just over two minutes forty-five seconds. The chase group had an average speed of just at 40 mph.
When you have the right mindset and work in flow, nothing is impossible.
You see, contrary to popular wisdom, there is a formula to these things.
Let's switch gears.
Recently, I had a conversation with an executive whose team I work with.
I was congratulating him on a recent milestone the organization had hit. A major one. We had set forth a performance improvement plan designed to ignite greater customer lifetime value and it had hit gold.
He said to me, "yeah, but our achievement began because we were so bad to start with. So it doesn't count."
What?! Doesn't count?
Let's dissect what happened...
I asked him if he had been focused on the hourly production metrics instead of motivating flow and innovation activities within his group, following the lead of a few others in the facility who were 'in the know', would the outcome have been the same?
He replied no, the gap to the goal would have seemed impossible, and they would have focused or obsessed on the wrong things.
They would have improved but fell well short of the goal.
He was absolutely convinced of this. And, he was right.
But only if you are willing to accept this as fact.
Organizational Flow is the 'X' factor.
It beats hard work.
It beats the sole reliance on any traditional process (but you still need to follow them. They are tools, NOT the 'X' factor')
Interested in the outcome? What did the 'X' factor deliver?
The product in question was not performing well at all. It had not for almost 2 years.
The fact was that this marquee customer was on the verge of canceling, due to persistent quality and production issues. This important client had very little belief due to lackluster results.
So we made changes a few SMALL things. A handful. We changed the way we looked at things. We threw away the traditional 'manufacturing we've always done it this way' mindset.
We changed less than 5% of the total work flow processes. But what we did change, we changed it until the fit was natural. We didn't force it or find it. The changes presented themselves and the changes looked quite different on the surface. It unnerved some, but in the end, these changes were miniscule. We moved things around and changed how we engaged.
We focused on the 3 and 3 of Flow (more on what that is in a future post).
Some wanted to label it Kaizan, others Poka Yoke, still others said the improvements were a result of beter RCA (Root Cause Analysis) or a half a dozen other manufacturing processes everyone recognized. The familiar is easy to gravitate to.
Those are tools that were later applied to what we did but the changes we made originated from none of these. The improvements and results came from finding Flow.
So what happened?
In two quarters we had radically turned things around, the customer had established the product as their New Global Gold Standard and increased their purchase allocation with this team by over 33%. The team is now their preferred supplier for this product.
What would an increase of 33% in sales with a VIP client be worth? Especially when that customer started out on the bubble?
THINK ABOUT THAT...A 33% INCREASE IN NEW REVENUE FROM AN EXISTING VIP CLIENT.
Back to the executive I was talking to.
Does it matter that they started behind when they finished ahead?
His traditional training and perception told him yes. This is no different that our group of riders telling ourselves, "we can't do this thing."
But does it really matter?
If you can do the 'impossible' and sustain it, does where you started really matter?
No. What matters is what you choose to do and then do.