From running to walking, and back again.

One week I was running. The next, I could barely walk.

Last year was great. I ran over 3,000km in 2024, and had an awesome summer of running and adventuring. Then something that seemed like nothing turned into six months off. It was likely a stress fracture, though the frustrating thing is I didn't see it coming. When you're performing well, when everything feels good, it's incredibly hard to step back and assess what's actually working and what's quietly breaking down. In this case I was focused on a volume of kilometres - an outcome metric - and not keeping an eye on other parts of the system that contribute to delivering that outcome.

It turns out that running that much requires more than just running... It requires strength training I wasn't doing, nutrition I wasn't paying enough attention to, recovery I wasn't prioritising, and conditioning work I was skipping because I felt fine. All the less visible elements that keep the whole system functioning.

Runners who can't run generally get frustrated about not being able to 'pull the shoes on' and experience the joy of 'turning the legs over'. However, in such situations I now shift my mindset to 'what can I do?' rather than focusing on what I can't do. There's always something you can do to move forward, even when you're constrained. In this case it was an opportunity to stop and review, to look at the whole system, and recognise that other parts of my training and my general approach needed to adapt or develop to accommodate both the volume of running and getting older. I know I'll be better for it.

I'm back running again, and will soon begin another training programme for more long running over this coming summer. And I'll be stronger and more supple, and will pay more attention to my nutrition and where my body's at on any given day.

I see a similar pattern occurring in organisations.

Growth is good - rightly so, businesses need to grow. More customers, more projects, more revenue all feels positive, and the temptation is to keep doing what you're doing because it's working. But for growth to be sustainable, the strategy, systems and people need to develop as well, and this is where many organisations struggle. One more customer never seems like a bad idea, yet one more customer not served well, or a key employee who leaves because they're burnt out or feeling undervalued, or operations that can't handle higher volumes, can really affect a business. The system fractures at its most susceptible part, and often that part is the one that wasn't being watched because everything else appeared to be going well.

If one thing changes in a business, other systems will inevitably need to change to be able to work effectively together. If the market's booming and you're getting lots of customers, how are your operations coping with the new levels of demand? Are delivery times increasing? How much pressure does the team feel to deliver? Can you actually afford the growth you're experiencing? These are questions that need asking because when performance is strong it's tempting to assume everything is fine and to just keep pushing forward. As equally when things aren't going to plan and times are tough, looking at the performance of your strategy and systems and recognising they too need to change is important.

The practice of strategic management is about holistically looking at the business and being across all parts of the system. Being too focused on one performance metric, whether its kilometres run or revenue growth, without understanding what's changing and is now required across the whole system to deliver or sustain performance, is a recipe for fracture, somewhere.

If the goal is performance, and to not just trundle along, whatever the activity, then it is important to consistently step back and look at how the whole system is operating. Performing well requires constant attention and improvement.