I am not a huge sportsperson. But I love the Olympic games. I am one of those people who will wake up at 2 am just to watch the events live.
My favourite summer sport is the 4-person, 100-meter relay. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this race, each Country takes their 4 fastest runners and puts them together to compete as a team. Well, it’s kind of a team … if you consider passing a baton in a relay, it’s more of a group sport. I love this race so much because you can have the four fastest people in the world on your team, but you aren’t guaranteed a win. Four grown athletes need to do only one thing together: pass a flippin’ baton.
I liken this to handoffs at work, where you have hired a team of high performers, but if they can’t pass tasks to each other, group achievement will suffer. Like the relay event, when passing the baton, sometimes one person is walking while the other is walking, or worse yet, someone throws the baton when the other isn’t looking, knocking them out cold.
Considering how much time is wasted in meetings due to poor handoffs, it is a wonder that we don’t spend more time practicing these important transitions. The simple task of handing a baton to your colleague is equivalent to sending an email in a way that either overwhelms them with too much data or is so short that the context is missing or is a non-productive meeting discussion where one person rants for 15 minutes and the other person disengages.
A few learnings that we can take away from the team relay event:
- The relay is a team sport, but not everyone has to be running at the same time. In work life, this means that not everyone has to be included in all the meetings all the time, and it is 100% okay to divide and conquer. Small group or peer handoffs are fine.
- The fastest runners should be in the starting and final positions, with the steady performers in the middle. It is critical to play to the group’s strength, and just because you are fast off the gate or a good closer shouldn’t take away from those amazing contributors in the core who are always consistent and reliable. All 4 skill sets are needed to win!
- The handoffs require an empathetic approach where you match your pace and stride to the other runner. Both runners must adapt their style to the other, which is the same in business. A successful email, meeting or delegation handoff requires that each person adjust their style to the approach of the other.
Key Takeaways
- Critically evaluate your team rhythms this week and see where the handoffs might not be working as well as they could be
- Encourage better handoffs in meetings by having your team clearly articulate their expectation from the group before going on a rant. For example, what are they looking for from the others in the team? Is the purpose of the conversation just to give a heads-up, are you looking for feedback or are you hoping for group problem solving?
- Be okay with dividing and conquering. The launch people should only attend the project meeting at the initiative’s beginning or when a crisis arises, and a final push is needed. The same goes for the core type, which is best in the middle of the project. Don’t torture them with pie-in-the-sky conversations.
