My stumblings for REST

I stumble upon things sometimes… Mike may not think so but I know the rest of the leadership team believes me .

The truth is I try to stumble into things A LOT.

I wasn’t planning on sharing what I wrote below, but I think I need to share what I’m thinking about because that’s the culture and environment we are building. We are building a place where ideas can be shared. An environment where we seek to understand before being understood. I think finding truth and living it out is a journey of conversation and humble experimentation.

In that vein, I write quite a bit as my way to find clarity… so when I write an email with “stumble” or “stumbling” please do not feel obligated to read it. But I do feel obligated to share as mentioned above.

Well… back to what I stumbled upon in New Mexico… 

A new relationship with rest & rejuvenation. 

The Russians dominated weight lifting for many, many years. They were considered impossible to defeat. No one knew why but the assumption was their incredible exercise regimen. When scientists studied their process. It was the Work-Rest ratio. They had a deep refueling cycle. 

The Russian weight lifters married high performance with deep rest.

I think it’s important for us as leaders to begin to flip the script of rest & rejuvenation and set an example in the organization.

Old Script - To get more done, must put in more hours

 An unhealthy culture makes A players feel a perverse sense of guilt if they are taking a break or taking time for rest & rejuvenation.

 An unhealthy culture fosters the approach of a marathon runner with only filling up and fueling while on the grind. The marathon runner is trudging along making progress but not maximizing potential.

New Script - Top performance is not a linear game

 A healthy culture celebrates rejuvenation and encourages teammates to get away from the business understanding the correlation of recharging leads to extraordinary performance.

 A healthy culture fosters the approach of a sprinter. Go hard and rest / play hard. (ie with intentionality) The sprinter is covering incredible distance with extraordinarily high performance.

Some examples:

 Farming: It’s in the fallow season the harvest is really blossoming.

 Weightlifting: Exercise is the micro-tear of muscle & rest repairs and bolsters the micro tear 

 Machines break when they redline for too long. Humans breakdown or are not nearly as effective when grinding for too long.

Growth happens in the resting phase. When we frame and encourage each other to recharge we are serving from a full cup. A cup with patience, empathy, and insight to create non-linear returns.

We need longevity from the retention of our team to achieve legendary results. I believe we can find a way to structure rest and hard work in a seasonality business. We can help our team recharge in the offseason in a way manufacturing companies or other more steady businesses might not be able to. 

Leaders get paid to think clearly, think deeply, and think holistically for the interdependent web of the organization. Leaders are creating a path forward where there is no clear path.

The work of leaders is non-linear. Meaning an extra hour at the desk does not equate to an extra hour of output. A leader’s insights can create exponential value.

As ambitious, hungry humans it’s counterintuitive to the truth that not every hour and not every day of the week needs to be used “productively” and “grinding”. That day off at the lake or that day going to the park might be the day where you find the insight needed to improve the business. Or maybe it was simply a day to recharge the tank to play the game of business with a little more patience and a little more compassion for your team.