4 Steps to get your team aligned and moving fast in uncertain times

Does everything feel like it is moving too slow in your organization, including growth? Does it feel like you need to ask and answer every question to get momentum and get stuff done?

Over the past 25+ years and 11,000+ conversations, here are some of the most common comments I hear in fast-growth companies:

These comments point to some “sand in the gears,” getting in the way of achieving your goals. “Sand in the gears” is about what it feels like as a leader.

I once had a bike with messed up gears. I’d shift gears and nothing happened. I’d try to go fast, but the bike stayed in a lower gear. I’d shift gears and it’d take several minutes of pedaling for the gears to finally catch. Sometimes the chain would just fall right off.

I always got to my destination, but it was a lot more complicated than it needed to be. I was frustrated; it took longer, my hands (and clothes) got stained. It wasn’t ideal by any definition.

It’s the same way in many organizations I get the chance to invest in and work alongside. The businesses get where they need to go, but they could go a lot farther a lot faster. I’ve created a simple framework to think about your business when it comes to the proverbial sand in the gears: the Velocity Vector:

Every leader starts on their journey by making promises and setting goals. You make (either implicitly or explicitly) promises to yourself, your family, investors, employees, customers, and vendors. Then, you set out on a journey to keep the promises and the goals

When all is said and done, you either keep those promises or you don’t. I typically help CEOs who feel like they have sands in the gears on their journey. They realize it shouldn’t feel so hard or go so slow. They want someone with experience to come along and provide an objective look at the business. What they are often experiencing are the symptoms of a broken Velocity Vector.

It’s the most important part of any leader’s job: providing clarity. Everything you are doing is either providing clarity or propagating confusion. Sometimes, it’s hard to see with the naked eye, but almost everything we do in business is trying to provide clarity. Pressure test this and see if you agree:

If these aren’t done well (and many organizations struggle, even though they do some of these activities), it’s a ripe opportunity to unintentionally propagate confusion.

If you can provide clarity, you’ll naturally have people making more informed decisions. If people are making more informed decisions, you’ll have alignment in the organization. Once you have alignment, it’s off to the races. That’s where decision velocity comes in. If you can reach decision velocity, you will accelerate towards your goals and promises.

Decision velocity is simply the ability of your employees to make the right decision quickly. They don’t need to lobby for buy-in or ask permission from the CEO (or other teams) because everyone is aligned around the business’s goals.

When you have the opposite of decision velocity, it’s like someone running a 10k Race, stopping every 100 yards to see if they are going the right direction, asking if they are running fast enough, if they have the proper form, etc. It sounds ridiculous, but how many businesses have scattered focus and thus scattered results?

When the Velocity Vector breaks, the most common reaction is to throw more money (and people) at the problem to keep your promises and goals. If the Velocity Vector never gets fixed, your cost structure easily (and quickly) gets out of whack. Eventually, this results in a RIF (Reduction in Force).

What does the RIF try and do? Get people quickly back to alignment, especially since there are fewer people in the organization.

It’s a lot easier to start thinking about the Velocity Vector from the beginning. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be diving deep into each critical point in the Velocity Vector and what you need to do to work your way up the Vector. Ultimately, it will help you keep your promises and goals.

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