What change management and ultramarathons have in common
They say you should write about what you know. As a pre-birthday treat, this weekend I took myself off to Inverness to run the Ultra X Scotland 50km race around Loch Ness. Those who know me are well aware that ultramarathons are a regular feature in my calendar. Professionally speaking, change (and/or project) management of various kinds has also been a consistent presence in my career. So, with too much time to kill at Inverness airport before flying home, I’ve been reflecting on what change management and ultramarathons have in common. (TL;DR: it’s perhaps more than you think.)
Pace yourself
Ultramarathons are, quite literally, a marathon not a sprint. Pacing yourself is absolutely key: if you’re absolutely cooked after the first 10 miles, it’s going to be a long, slow slog to the finish. You have to ignore the pace that your watch is flashing at you and accept that some sections will be slower than others, whether that’s hiking the uphills or taking it easy on a technical downhill. In change management, pacing yourself is also key, not only to you being able to work in a sustainable way, but also to ensuring that the project is moving at a speed that suits your stakeholders (more on community a little later). Even where there is significant appetite for a change to be made, there is no point in launching your project at break-neck speed and then running out of energy and buy-in part way through (think Aesop’s ‘Tortoise and the Hare’). That said, there is most certainly an art to making the most of easier sections, whether that’s a lovely flat section of runnable trail, or a chunk of your project that is progressing particularly well or that has especially strong buy-in.
Expect the unexpected
Over the course of 50km, a lot can happen that you didn’t expect (or, at least, didn’t think would happen). Sometimes, for instance, you can’t go as quickly as you thought. You studied the elevation profile prior to the race, and that downhill at mile 24 looked runnable and not too severe. But now you’re staring down it, it’s far steeper than you’d anticipated and there are large rocks and tree roots everywhere that are just asking for an ankle to be rolled. In the interests of not breaking yourself (though there are plenty of ultra runners who have a total lack of self-preservation instinct!), you have to slow down. Annoying, yes, but also necessary. The same is true of any kind of change project. You have a beautiful project plan and Gantt chart mapped out, and then something (a lack of resource, resistance or concern that needs to be worked through, etc.) comes along that derails your timeline. Aside from being a good reminder to always plan contingencies into your timescales (where possible), it’s perhaps also healthy to remember that you can’t always foresee the tree roots.
It takes a village
Many people would reasonably think of ultramarathons as a solo sport. But take part in an ultramarathon (or, frankly, any running event), and you’ll quickly realise the importance of community. Whether it’s the crew providing you with water at checkpoints, the medics patching up runners who’ve taken a tumble (or whose feet have turned into one giant blister), your fellow athletes who you chat to along the way, supporters cheering you on, or the race directors making sure that everyone is safe, it quite literally takes a village to get you to the finish line. Similarly, effective change management requires the creation of a community (whether or not you formalise that into a community of practice) that can comprise the immediate project team, the team(s) or department(s) affected by the change, senior stakeholders, and the wider community in your organisation. The ripple effects of a well-managed change project — in terms of sharing learning and best practice, breaking down silos, or achieving the stated objectives — can be profound, and community is fundamental to that.
Process not (always) outcome
Some runners might have the goal of a podium finish or to achieve a personal best; some professionals might have the goal of winning awards for their work or achieving recognition from senior colleagues. None of those things are bad, but it is perhaps not advisable to pursue them as your sole goal or source of motivation. By the end of an ultramarathon, even if you’ve done many of them, you will have learned things both about yourself and about how you approached the race that you will take forward into future races (and, indeed, your life outside running). The other brilliant thing is that no two races are the same, so the lessons and reflections will always be different, even if it’s just thinking about how beautiful the scenery was. The same is true of change management. I don’t know a single person who has ever completed a project and thought, ‘Well, that didn’t teach me anything at all.’ Whether or not you ultimately achieve the desired result from your race or project, remembering to place a high value on the process and stopping to appreciate the views along the way, are key both to making the race or project more enjoyable, but also to maximising the learning and growth involved.
Finally, I’d also highly recommend a post-race (or post-project) pizza and beer with friends to really maximise the experience, but the reflections from those conversations are perhaps best kept for another day.
