A Rolling Stone Needs To Gather Mass
Velocity is overrated, while momentum is underrated.
Imagine you are on Team A where -
Everything feels that extra bit difficult to achieve.
People constantly run into obstacles.
Everything feels mundane yet challenging.
People look externally for motivation and come back with nothing.
It feels like you are running hard while mostly standing still.
Now, let’s say you switch over to Team B.
Challenges exist, but feel surmountable.
There is a sense that you are pulling more weight than you normally could.
People seem to be intrinsically motivated and this energy rubs off each other.
Everyone seems to be running in the same direction but also seem to be having fun.
Team A does not feel like the A-Team. Team B is the team to be on.
Team A feels like a stone rolling down a hill, gathering no moss, and trying to feel good about it. Despite moving fast, it hits a tree trunk and comes to a halt.
Team B is like a snowball rolling down a mountain. It starts off looking like something you would ignore, but picks up more mass as it rolls down. The accumulation steadily continues even though it may not be faster than the rolling stone. While the stone came to a stand still when faced with an obstacle, the snowball begins to consume everything in its path. You don’t want to be in its way.
Velocity vs Momentum
Velocity is the rate at which distance is covered in a particular direction. Leaders often seek velocity as a defining characteristic of organization culture because we like to imagine the business we are in to be a race. The idea is that if you are pointed in the right direction - which is the primary task leadership is charged with - then all you need to do is run faster than your competition.
If you however believe that business is instead an Infinite Game - as popularized by Simon Sinek - running hard, even if it is in the right direction, will simply mean you soon run out of gas.
Perhaps organizations and teams that intend to play the long game need a different adage. Let’s give Momentum a chance.
The momentum of a moving object is the product of its mass and velocity. While direction is equally important in momentum, there is a sense of weight, a force if you will, behind it.
If you were in the velocity game, you try to find ways to run faster. Sometimes you shed weight. Other times you light up some nitro boosters.
If you were in the momentum game, you worry less about velocity but try to put more mass behind your existing velocity. Your aim is to become an irresistible force, not Usain Bolt.
Record Momentum
What does momentum in an organization look like?
Let’s join Team B again for an insider’s perspective.
Problems surface, but are often solved, not worked around.
Changes and updates are visible to everyone on the team.
Milestones are celebrated, and the celebrations appear to be happening more often.
Failures are also recorded, with the lessons therein used to correct course.
Even though it feels like a lot is happening, the team is focused on a handful of critical priorities.
Work feels additive and meaningful - building toward something big - and not just a random set of activities.
How does one create this environment?
Momentum must be felt by everyone on the team. Stay connected with the ones on the trenches - like the surface of a snowball, they experience momentum the most. Record and regularly share the milestones, the outcomes, the impact, to help others feel the momentum they help generate. Over time, a feedback loop should kick in to produce more momentum.
When the snowball is small, it is even more prone to having its journey downhill curtailed by the smallest of obstacles as compared with a rolling stone. Proactively identifying and removing impending obstacles helps build early momentum. Over time, the snowball has enough momentum to take down obstacles on its own, leaving you to focus on the bigger obstacles alone.
Keeping the snowball together so it can move in one major direction is finally the obvious call to action that leaders are charged with. This mainly takes the shape of fully appreciating the business vision and bringing it to bear in two major dimensions -
Brutal prioritization - Crystal clarity on what really matters, and that everything else is fluff and must be avoided as a fatal distraction.
Containing WIP - Having too many things in progress is a recipe for disaster. I will defer to John Cutler to do the honors of explaining this one succinctly.
Start building this momentum today. Communicate your wins and your failures with equal gusto as accomplishments to be built upon. Build your own irresistible snowball.
Have you been on a Team B? How would you describe the joyous feeling of momentum on this team?