Winners and Losers Have The Same Goals
That’s why systems matter
Everyone in this business wants to do great. Most of us even want to be a part of something amazing. Something that both users love, something that makes a positive dent in the core business, and honestly, something we can show for as professionals.
But if you don’t have a system, you’re chasing a dream. A few might be able to create that dream with luck, but for the rest of us, we need consistent action to realise whatever goals we have set out to achieve.
A great system is not about techniques or processes in itself. It’s how you take advantage of many efforts that in the end creates a culture within your team (and hopefully outside your team as well).
Bill Walsh, the late football coach, said it best: “The score takes care of itself”.
“You can’t completely control the outcome of a game, but you can control the effort you put into your training, and if you relentlessly focus on improving, you increase your chances of success. Focus on continuously bettering yourself, and the score will take care of itself.”
I’m not there yet that I can say “I” have “a system”. Our teams system has been created as a collaborative, natural process. More organically evolved than built with force.
As time passes however, I do find that I can narrow more down to what I wish for in a system.
- That the people is the business, and people always comes before process.
- That we have a clear why and the whole team has full ownership of what we want to achieve.
- That we’re intense on product discovery.
- That we exploit when we win and we explore when we lose.
- That we always learn and test, both on the product, but also in how we collaborate.
- That our team has many leaders.
- That our team should have fun.
- That we win as a team, and we lose as a team. One team, one dream.
In that sense, it’s important that everyone agrees on the system. That means we can’t have someone wanting to do 6 months analysis when another wants to work iteratively to achieve the same goals. That means we can’t be organised as a project team, when we want to be a product team. That means it’s not about me, it’s about we.
“Success is not a goal to reach or a finish line to cross. It is a system to improve, an endless process to refine — James Clear in Atomic Habits
Maybe I’m being sentimental, but I know team changes over time and what we have now will not be forever.
In that sense, I want to be a part of a positive impact that our team members carry on in new places. A system that can be improved. As James Kerr poetically wrote in the book “Legacy”, which is about the All Blacks, “Perhaps it is because its core idea — of legacy, of leaving the jersey in a better place, of planting trees that we will never sit in the shade of”.
That’s why winners have systems.
Hey, you made it to the end! 🎉
P.S. If you want to read more about what our system is, check out: The secrets sports teams can teach us about building teams.
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If you would like more stories like these, check out Failing Forward.
