The Psychology of Accelerated Delivery

Despite only qualifying with a time equal fifth fastest for the 2004 summer Olympics men’s 4*100m relay final, Great Britain took out the gold medal beating the favourites, USA, by one one-hundredth of a second.

To make this an even greater feat, team USA had three of their team represented in the men’s individual 100m final coming in first, third and fourth and all breaking the 10-second barrier. Not one of Great Britain men’s relay team made the 100m men’s final.

So, what does athletics have in common with project management. Well, quite a lot actually. You see, the basic requirements for the relay race are as follows:

A team is made up of four sprinters, each running 100m to complete a lap of the track. During their individual legs, they must carry a baton and pass it to the next runner within a 20m changeover box that’s situated 10m before and 10m after the start of each subsequent leg. The outgoing runner usually runs at full speed with an arm stretched out behind to receive the baton. Failure to adhere to the baton-changing rules results in a team’s disqualification. The first team across the finish line, baton in hand, wins.

So, with an overall delivery distance of 400m, there are 3 * 20m high-risk changeover boxes that can determine the outcome of the result. That’s 15% of the overall race determined by the changeover. So how did Great Britain beat the resounding favourites USA (which by the way included two world record holders) – in the changeovers!

Here are some easy, practical steps to unlock the next level of performance in your team.

Value/Respect

Every team member needs to be valued and respected as an expert in their field. Empower them to be that leader and allow them to own and define their changeovers and the work they need to do to execute their leg.

Communication

Each team member needs to know not only when, but how best to communicate with other members of the team. Use commonly available tools to identify what type of communicator your team members are and how those types can improve interactions. Make other teams aware of how to engage you and excel in serving and responding to them through this process.

Knowledge sharing

Encourage your teams to share their knowledge and mentor someone in their area of expertise. Not only will this practice team communication, but it will grow leadership and help other members of the team to grow.

Practice

Means not perfect yet! Create a safe environment for constant improvement to flourish.

Now, in time the above practical steps will create the following high-performance outcomes in the team:

Care/Empathy

When you value the role of your colleagues, you will take an interest in what they do and attach importance to it. You will develop the ability to understand and share the feelings of your colleagues and become interested in their successes and wellbeing.

Trust

When care and empathy are demonstrated between team members with open communication, the team develops trust. Receiving teams need to trust that their delivery partners are ready and with them to start their leg. This takes respect, communication and practice.

Belief

When the team trusts each other to deliver, they start to believe that they can achieve!

Team GB walked onto the biggest stage of their lives, prepared, trained and practised. They had 100% support of each other and believed that together they had the ability to win, even though they physically did not possess the individual speed to beat the other teams. They rose above that through the belief they had in each other and their team, the trust they had in the handovers that they had practiced day in and day out.

At IT³ our mission is to “Simplify change and accelerate delivery”. We do this by listening to and developing a relationship with our customers. We share and combine our experience with your team and define a supportive team structure. Then we practice, which fosters continuous improvement, support and care for each other which builds trust and ultimately leads the team to believe in their ability to deliver.  

“The Psychology of Accelerated Delivery” values people over skillset, because when the team believes, they can adapt and change to wherever you need your company to go. And when you value your team, they will want to come with you.