It turns out that, if you ask yourself “Can I keep going?”
rather than “Can I make it to the finish?”
you’re far more likely to answer in the affirmative.
As an endurance athlete, I found that this lengthy but excellent article about the Quarantine Backyard Ultra and its lessons for the pandemic really resonated for me.
Hahaha. No. As a long-time resident of Proposal Land, I found that it really resonated for me. Because the strategy you might follow to finish one proposal is not the same as the one you must follow to survive an endless series of them.
Novice runners monitor their distance;
experienced ones monitor their speed.
I’ve written before about managing team workload and about managing our own efforts. It bears repeating, because driving people into burnout, or driving yourself there, is counter-productive in a work-quality sense as well as unacceptable in a human sense. And because folks don’t seem to get it.
Maybe this approach will resonate for a different set of folks, and for workers and managers alike.
There is no finish line.
At the pace you’re setting
can you still keep going?
At the pace your team is setting
can they keep going?