Forget urgency and speed. Let’s talk about velocity.
Image by Christian Lue
"I'll never hire a slow walker; they have no sense of urgency, " said my boss as we raced between meetings - him, 6'4" with long, easy strides and me, 5'4", doing double time just trying to keep up. We must have looked like something out of a cartoon. That was over 15 years ago, and I still think about it.
I think about it often, especially with so many clients focused on speed and urgency of execution. Leaders are constantly challenging their teams to move faster and do more - sometimes driven by purpose, competitive forces or the pressures of burn rate. Sometimes all three.
These demands for urgency, combined with our collective shift to hybrid work, have left many feeling burned out. I've heard coaching clients describe feeling like they're in a washing machine - being thrown around in a hive of activity, losing sight of what they should be doing, and being unable to identify clear priorities.
Building a narrative around speed and urgency becomes dangerous when your team are so busy and moving so quickly that they can't even remember why they're doing it. Instead, let's talk about velocity.
I suspect that my 11th-grade teacher would be shocked to find me talking about some of the principles of Physics he attempted to impart in the late 1980s, but here we go.
I've seen speed and velocity used interchangeably in business - but the distinction is significant. Where speed is the rate at which an object is moving, velocity is the rate and direction of the movement. (Thanks Encyclopedia Britannica).
As leaders, if we ask for speed from our teams, don't we at least owe them direction?
Here are 8 different ways you can begin to reframe your ask from speed to velocity:
Health Check - start by checking in with the team. Are they OK? (Many aren't but will only say so if you create the space for it). What level of energy can they bring to their work? What do they need to refresh and refocus?
Purpose - revisit the purpose with each member of your team. Do they understand how their role connects with your company's raison d'etre? Re-establish a focus on their specific contribution. Why them? Why now?
Direction - clarify and reinforce your direction regularly. The "One in Sixty" navigation analogy is good to remember here. After 60 miles, a one-degree error in heading will result in straying off course by one mile. That seems like little impact over short distances, but you risk getting way off-course if you play it out over the long term.
Priority - calibrate priorities with your team individually and collectively. Check to make sure you have alignment and focus on the right areas.
Decision making - ask yourself whether your decisions are helping or hindering velocity in your team. Are you involved in the right decisions? At the right time? Do you need to step in more? Or get out of the way?
Capacity - help your team to understand their capacity. What time, headspace or energy do they have available? How does this compare with what is required to meet the demands of their role? What conversations do they need to have as a result of this analysis?
Language - build a language within and across your teams that make it safe to say, "That's not a priority right now", "I can't fit that in this week", or "Perhaps we need to revisit our cross-functional priorities."
Review - bring your team together to talk about their ways of working. Talk about the last quarter using the speed vs velocity lens. Where did you maintain your speed and direction? Where did either speed or direction suffer? Work together to create a plan for the next quarter to support both.
In the daily cut and thrust of fast-growth companies, it's hard to see the difference between speed and velocity. It takes consistent vigilance and the headspace to zoom out to notice the changes as they occur. If you'd like to dig deeper into the techniques I've described above or discuss how to implement them in your team, reach out any time.
Best of luck!