Ok to Fail, Not Ok to Stop; Agility Musings
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently”, Henry Ford.
As much as we like to make ambitious plans, sometimes life chooses to take a swig of those. For me running is not just a hobby but a calling, a passion that has become ingrained in my life for almost a decade (Why do I run ?). After 2500+ Kms in a year and multiple full marathons, it’s hard to swallow when you hit a brick wall in the form of an injury.
Early 2022 I had picked up a niggle in my knee, that I brushed aside in my relentless pursuit of attempting a full marathon. Here is my story towards that Full Marathon Journey.
My knees paid the price for this relentless running over the past 2 years since the onset of Covid. In February this year, after my Mumbai marathon, my knee condition aggravated, causing discomfort even while walking. Now it dawned on me that I had to act - the elephant in the room had grown too big to be ignored. The entire month of Feb & March went by recuperating my knees, disrupting my runs, rhythm & endurance, leaving me frustrated.
As I reflect back, I’m drawing parallels to how we pick ourselves up after we encounter a setback and continue onwards with the goals we have set in our professional lives.
1 First reaction is denial; refusal to seek help — I wasn’t ready to accept my knees need professional attention. I attributed to wrong shoes, running posture, or sheer muscle soreness, took few days break and tried running again. Pain returned, even more harsher it was. My thinking I knew my body and been great in tending to it, so no one else can weigh in here. True that is, what I was missing was perspectives from others, especially those with experience in treating similar issues.
Even in Agility, we could be in denial choosing to look the other way brushing aside the persisting issues, treating just the symptoms superficially. In our pursuit to keep going, we end up accumulating ‘debts’, that would weigh the team down, eventually stalling them.
2 Pause with intent, think objectively-
Present is the reality, have to come to terms with it, leaving emotions aside. I ceased all my running or exercises that put strain on my knees. Introspected the issue and realized this needs attention. I spoke to a few runner friends, consulted a physio, met with a running coach, all this while, I paused on my runs. Complete rest to my knees for 2+ weeks. I realized & hesitantly admitted, I don’t know it all. Coach helped with my running postures, small adjustments, physio with relieving the pain, exercises to strengthen & rehabilitate my knee muscles.
Even in work, instinctive reaction after we accept a problem is to solve. Instead pause, take a step back and reflect with the team. Use data objectively, seek experts help (if need be), before getting down to solutioning it. Listen to perspectives of your team, observe & reflect with the data in hand. The solution(s) will naturally follow.
3 Solutioning to avoid recurrence —
My immediate urge was to shake this niggle off and get back to running, even if adopting short term hacks. Tried being defensive with my physio when I was advised strictly Not to run for 3 weeks. Tried sneaking a short run here & now to check if my knees were holding up along with strengthening exercises. It took me a long time to accept its a long road to recovery and is an ongoing process.
In teams as we encounter problems, instinct is to restore normalcy and not do any deep introspection to dig up any systemic issues. Resolving the root causes usually takes the entire team to commit, be patient and persistent. But results are long lasting and solutions more sustainable.
4 Microhabits are key to sustaining improvements—
Started with gym to improve my overall core strength, mobility and muscle conditioning. This would also be a forcing function for me NOT to run all the days. Rest & recovery are so underrated. My usual running route was within my community that barely has a straight stretch of road beyond 100mts, causing duress to my legs. I usually run late in my nights post work (not a morning person !), that stopped me from running outside. Switched to morning runs, started waking up early, running route were intentionally kept in straight roads, avoiding pressure to my knees.
As much as we focus on identifying root causes, focus is also not to regress on microhabits that will set in motion these root causes. Be persistent with micro-habits even if progress is slow, so long as we are moving onwards and upwards. Identify your improvements in a ‘Now, Next, Later’ priority, to keep the focus on short & long-term improvements.
5 Recovery plans bound to hit snags, how we adapt is crucial —
Any plans being made with ideal conditions are fraught with unknowns, that could derail our efforts. Almost one month into the recovery, I was hit with viral flu, persistent throat infections, was stopped dead in the tracks. Continued with my knee strengthening exercises but also gave ample rest to my weary legs. Most importantly the pause allowed me to accept that chasing monthly miles or running all days a week is NOT an option as I age physiologically. Worked with my coach to tweak the plan as I’ve restarted again, listening to my body with more intent.
So is for any team working on a series of self improvement actions. Team is bound to hit a blocker or pause due to varied reasons of obstacles. It means time to observe and adapt, not just stop on our improvement effort(s).
6 Be Persistent — Okay, to be demotivated at times as progress slows— Last but not the least, at times it was frustrating and disappointing to see my runner friends continue their runs and me stopped in my tracks. Not seeing improvements at the pace I expected despite doing everything I was told to, is bound to demotivate, self doubts will creep up and even I was questioning if I would enjoy my runs as before.
At work if we feel stuck with a problem, getting together with our team, exploring objectively, leveraging collective wisdom; the noise and clutter are going to give way to solutions that may always be in front of us. It’s those small sustainable improvements that takes the team long way, instead of a sporadic colossal improvement(s).
Last week, during my runs is when I framed this blog in my head, glad to know that am still enjoying my runs (albeit a little less frequent). Yes, I’ve restarted my runs, this time, not chasing miles rather, enjoying the process and listening to my body and putting equal focus on strengthening & giving adequate rest to my muscles.
With focus on putting your one foot in front of the other, inhaling and exhaling usually clear up my thoughts. Writer’s block vanishes, as always, running is my antidote to stuck thoughts or solutions for thorny problems am mulling over my head.
Postscript: The title applies to situations where we’ve established clear goals and are striving towards moving forward iteratively with an approach in place. There could be situations where we are toying with ideas, exploring solutions & feasibility- is not ok to stop in this case, if there is no progress or viability. Absolutely- the team would pivot take the learnings to be reapplied.
