🚀 A non-standard thing that I rarely see in action, that can help move your team from a low-performing to a high-performing one.
Here's the story. I worked with 70+ teams, and the most high-performing weren't those that delivered the most or were the fastest.
Why? If a team delivers crap, it will become a high-performing crap factory. 💩
Thus, apart from excellent teamwork, trust, a safe environment, and great colleagues with high communication skills, there needs to be something added to the equation.
This thing is 👉 DISCIPLINE 👈 and below are 5 arguments WHY.
WHAT kind of discipline?
The courage and stamina to uphold and exercise decisions against all odds.
It's not blindly following a set path or persisting when you should be adapting.
It's:
following up on your experiments
building a habit
holding yourself accountable
#1 "Discipline equals freedom" (Jocko Willink)
Building and upholding long-term habits save your energy from the need to make constant decisions and fight the odds each time.
For a team, it means less friction and more space to do the important work.
Two examples:
1/ A team always following up if they solved a problem from a retrospective about reducing the number of critical bugs produced.
2/ A team having purposeful meetings where they all remind themselves when the topic goes off course.
#2 You build empirical evidence
I've seen countless teams that started something new with their process, product or tech but did not have the discipline to take it from A to B.Â
Discipline helps maintain course and gather necessary data to know what works and doesn't.Â
Think:
How often does your team stick to their improvements?
Do they change them as it suits the moment? Do they really care?
If a team agrees on something yet people are sloppy to implement it than everyone has wasted their time discussing it.
#3 It builds resilience
When team members can rely on each other through a disciplined approach, they are more resilient to external disruptions.
Discipline helps in things the team has influence over but not control.Â
With persistence, they can influence those areas long-term and create the change they seek.Â
Those teams have their code of conduct and rules that make them antifragile.Â
#4 Eases decision making
A disciplined team can focus on the important conversations and work when they build a habit in, e.g. having hard conversations or concentrate on the strategy.
They don't need to experience friction in some areas again and again. It has become the new normal.
#5 Builds character of a team
A disciplined team is focused and not afraid to do the hard work. It has more ease with changing course due to a well-trained skill of changing a habit.Â
When you meet such a team, you see it's not just a group of people.Â
Discipline creates the base for many things to flourish:
craftmanship,Â
focused work,
delivery,
ownership,Â
resilience,
impact,
improvements that actually change something,Â
...
Canggu, Bali. Indonesia, Sep 2022
Today’s essay resonates quite a bit with what I’ve seen frequently during kite festivals in Bali, Indonesia. There are 4-5 different kites. One of them is the largest and can weight up to 350 kilograms (yes!) with length up to 50+ meters, at times, covering the whole beach.
I counted around 20-25 people needed to make it fly and land safely. Quite frankly, there is not that much coordination happening as I would expect. To me they are disciplined in a way to follow a plan but also be vigilant on how the circumstances change. Inspecting & adapting but also knowing what’s their role, responsibility and that they need to consistently work towards the end goal - keeping it in the air, making sure it does not crash into another one or into the water.
It’s truly magical and inspiring spectacle. Just see for yourself.
BONUS
A short video from Jocko Willink about the different shades of discipline, both individual and team.Â