Over the years I have been lucky enough to work with some really special and talented athletes.  Of all the athletes in all the codes, I have always held Ironman triathletes in particularly high regard.  The need to be proficient in three sports over such distances intrigues me from sporting, time management and human capability perspectives.  I still struggle to understand how, but I absolutely understand why.

This year’s Ironman World Championship was set to be a thriller.  The pro races featured a handful of past champions and the ranks of the age group competitors were filled with stories of overcoming adversity and the realization of lifelong dreams.  All great stuff, profound and inspirational.

The race itself is stuff of legend; racing across wind swept lava fields on the Big Island of Hawaii in the birthplace of the sport just sounds so epic.  To stand just to the left of that small pier in the small town of Kialua -Kona at the start of THE Ironman is a massive achievement.  To have qualified is a testament to an athletes ability to set goals, conquer challenges and just plain suffer.

A few weeks prior to the race I read about triple World Ironman Champion Chrissie Wellington and the injuries she sustained in training accident.  Two weeks out and injured.  Athletes at Chrissie’s level don’t leave things to chance.  Evey swim stoke, pedal rotation and running stride is planned. Game over I thought, two weeks out and the master plan has been disrupted.

As I watched the race unfold I was stunned by the performances on the course.  When the race announcers ran out of superlatives I knew it was a special day.  When Wellington climbed off the bike to start the marathon 10 minutes down on first place, I figured she was now racing for pride.  Over the next 42k I watched as an injured Chrissie Wellington worked her way through the field.  Close on her heeels was last years winner Mirinda Carfrae.  The two fought hard to the line with the difference down to a few minutes.  Both great champions, this time Wellington the winner.  A stunning and emotionally charged finish.

We can take some great lessons from Chrissie Wellington’s win.  She had a goal, to deliver her best possible performance on a given day.  To achieve this she built a long term plan.  Along the way she used other races to test her progress against the plan.  No doubt the plan adjusted along the way, but she continued to invest in her capability because it was the long term objective she wanted.  Chrissie worked with specialists to ensure she had the best information to plug into her plan. Adjust and test, adjust and test.

Close to her final objective, her big deliverable, she hit an obstacle.  For a long time Wellington had on her capability.  She never rested on her past performances and pushed to do things better.  She would have tweaked her plan due to the accident, but not lost sight of her deliverable.  On the big day, she adjusted her strategy to work to her strengths.  She innovated on the fly because that was what the competition required of her.

The ability to identify an objective, devise a plan to attain this objective and then deliver to perfection against the plan is rare.  To do so in circumstances that are beyond challenging is the domain of just a few.  Set a meaningful goal that will stretch you.  Speak with people in the know and engineer a process to realize your goal.  Grow your capability and hit the milestones along the way towards your big objective.  Accept adversity will come, but do not waver from your commitment.

Believe and deliver. Celebrate.

Late last week I attended a function to celebrate the over-achievements of participants in a graduate programme at a big professional services firm.  I like these sorts of events because the young people I meet are well informed and have fresh perspectives on diverse issues.  I often come away from such functions inspired to keep pace.

For days before I had been under pressure to complete a L&D plan for an overseas client.  I was happy with the body of the paper, but lacked a punchy conclusion and a call to action was nowhere to be seen.  For hours I had written and rewritten my close.  Each draft slipped farther from what I really wanted.  It was either very late one night or very early the next morning when I proof read my recommendations.  In my angst to complete the project I had cobbled together a collection of corporate-speak peppered with some L&D jargon.  What I read belonged more in a Dr Seuss story than a project paper.  I walked away.

Many hours later I was rested and refueled.  Sadly I still lacked the clarity to craft the elusive closing.  I found myself torn between the desire to explore what looked like a stunning late winter’s day and the very real tick-tock of my looming deadline.  I opted to leave the cave and headed off on my bike to test my declining fitness on some of the rolling country roads around my home.  Experience had taught me that my planned should have taken about three hours on a good day.

As I rode, I drifted back to the woeful close I had rewritten so many times.  Peddling away some things started to make sense.  About half-way through the ride there was a particularly ugly climb (the climb is stunning, the way I rode it is the ugly part), I started to think about an organisation’s need to balance work output with the desire to grow human capital.  One is always sacrificed for the other and that has often been the undoing of so many great initiatives.  In times of prosperity firms spend big on development.  When the squeeze hits, development becomes the Christmas turkey.

In my close I talked about the things that have transitioned organsiations into the high performing zone and the need to accelerate capability growth in times of hardship, but to adjust the method by which the learning is delivered.  Evolve the learning to meet the needs of the end user.

Back at my desk after my ride I finished off my paper with a close that I am really happy with.  Really happy.  The ride was not my quickest, but that was never the intention.

So back to the function.  I was explaining the process I had been through to the graduate group.  I said that sometimes you have to walk away to do your best work.  We talked about what they like to do as individuals to recharge.  We also talked about something they could do as project teams to stimulate fresh thinking.  Sadly, to the partners at the professional services firm, the idea of a group heading out for a morning surf session or a mid afternoon run did not directly equate to billable hours.  There may be some convincing yet to do with this firm though I suspect I will not be invited back.  Suggesting their best and brightest spend time AWOL was not taken well.

Regardless, I encourage you to look for innovative ways to enable the creative process for your people and within yourself.  You will be a more a more productive leader and change agent and if you are lucky, you may even be invited to participate.

Enjoy your heavy breathing.

SDG