Route Finding

The heart of an entrepreneur holds a willingness to embrace the chance of an uncertain outcome. Truthfully, it seems like human beings are always drawn to people willing to take that chance – whether entrepreneur, political leader, coach or a teammate as they step on a contested field. But what is at the heart of that willingness? It is vision. Despite the uncertainty, each sees where they want to go, and convinces us to believe that they can get us where we need to go.

How do you take that conviction and turn it into opportunity?

Here’s a start:

I am an adventure racer. Adventure racing is a sport for tightly knit teams combining multiple disciplines and objectives: typically the events involve biking, trekking, running, paddling and orienteering. A race can last from 4 hours to more than 7 days. The heart of the race is the challenge to get from checkpoint to checkpoint along a course with only a map and compass to guide your team.

In one race, our team was neck and neck for the lead seven hours into a twelve-hour race. We were so focused on two other teams coming out of one checkpoint, and they on us, that all three teams committed a critical failure. We did not take the time necessary to figure out where we were. We proceeded to race up the wrong flooded streambed for three hours, searching for the next checkpoint. It was not until all three teams crested the ridge of the Green Mountains with a full view of the breadth of our bad decision, that we admitted being out of position, and functionally out of the race. In business, failure to focus on strategy first and execution second, and to make sure the execution is aligned around the strategy, does not diminish the amount of work to be done; it just means you may be working tremendously hard only to end up on the top of the wrong hill.

In my case, all three teams lost because none of us took the time to figure out where we were – and therefore where we should be going – when we came out of that checkpoint. We recovered and finished the course, but far out of contention. A team needs a leader to be quick, competitive and well trained but above all to have a vision for where the team needs to go so the team has confidence that the collective effort is driving in the right direction.

The task of locating yourself on a map– in other words knowing your strengths and weaknesses, where you are and where you are going – cannot be an exercise in group think and simply self-appreciation. It has to be candid, real and accurate or you’ll end up eventually – after a lot of effort and work – with nothing but a great view of how far off you were.

Also, make sure your team has enough left in the tank to get back on course. Build in enough to make up for the unexpected, good or bad. As a senior team member at one client told us as we started an engagement to analyze their strategy and mission and drive to an articulation of a road map to get to ‘the next checkpoint,’ “we know we are doing great, we just don’t know why.”

Take the time to know “why” and “where” or else you may never get there.