The Olympic Technologists

The Olympics really are inspiring aren’t they?

Not just inspiring to get out and do some exercise and maybe achieve our own PB, but to be like the elite athletes becoming better at what they do, at their jobs, to be better at what we do, our jobs.

In the UK a lot of coverage is focused on the rowing and the cycling. These are two areas that UK sports federations have invested in, and it is really bearing fruit. At both Lagoa and the Olympic Velodrome Team GB look like they will come top of each disciplines mini medal table. These are different disciplines but during the commentary and the interviews with the successful athletes common themes kept rising to the surface. Themes that run true in technology execution.

 Trust the Process

The similarity in both teams post victory interviews is remarkable.

The teams in both disciplines have spoken about how they switch off before getting in the boat or on a bike and “trust the process”. The process of executing the race . The process to which they have referred relentlessly over the previous four years. The process they have practiced time and time again.

The process for these teams is a mental one that, once they have entered, allows them to stay calm and allow the physical side to execute. No panic, no shortcuts, just execution.

"Trust the process" really stuck a cord. Over recent years in delivering complex projects I can recall a number of times more experienced member of our team have asked those with less experience why a stage or stages of a robust process have been skipped. This skipped stage might be the rigour of depicting all user journeys or the step to produce a high-level technical component diagram. 

Generally the reason for skipping a step is that of time constraints or it wasn’t expected to produce any worthwhile input to the project. But the question is generally asked because the project has veered off track, and once the process is joined again, invariably the project is set back on track.

 The learning each time is to trust the process. Sure, as with the elite athletes, the process does need reviewed and tweaked at retrospectives but in the execution stage, trust it.

Enjoy the Pain

In the final parts of project execution, like rowers and cyclists in the final part of executing their races, there probably will be pain. Time pressures and difficult issues to solve, like finding and diagnosing that show stopper bug before code freeze, or locating the missed translation in data migration can be painful.

James Cracknell came out with a great phrase during his commentary at Lagoa in the crucial, final 250 meters of a rowing final – “now it’s time to enjoy the pain, enjoy the burning of the lactic knowing that everything that has gone before has led to the opportunity to experience this moment”.

We all know the pain of the final delivery, but calling on the experience of late nights during studies or earlier deliveries and how this was overcome and led to success will help to enjoy the current moment of pain.

And when it is all done…

That Band of Brothers, That Happy Few

There are few happier faces than the gold medal winners who have executed their four-year project successfully. Likewise, a technology team delivering a complex project successfully to live is a joyful moment.  

At the end, like the athletes, you are able to look around and thank everyone in the team, and maybe even those at home that have supported everything that has been accomplished.

Mixing my sporting metaphors, it brings to mind another great sporting speech. One that was delivered to the British and Irish Lions before the second test against South Africa in 1997. Not announced by Jim Telfor in the epic “This is your Everest boys” (which is a personal favourite) but by Ian McGeechan, Telfer’s number two.

 To quote “…you’ll meet each other in the street in 30 years time and there will just be a look and you’ll know how special some days are and just how special you are… go out enjoy it and remember how you got here and be special for the rest of your lives.” This is how working with a team to a successful execution can make you feel.

These athletes, like those working on successful technology projects have trusted the process, enjoyed the pain and they have become that happy few.