Habits and Rhythm

My team put this together a few years ago.
I thought it was a sign of endearment.
Now I’m not so sure.

Friday morning was forecast call morning, a time to share, to come together as one team, a time to calibrate and predict future growth, to test and measure the scale of ambition.

It was pretty combative, especially for a Friday, but it was also where the magic happened.

It was the rhythm, the operating heartbeat, the call to arms, the habit.

And it worked.

Every Friday for 10 years, come rain or shine, perpetual or SaaS, leadership rotations and flavours of the day. The business grew 10-fold in that decade.

I was reminded of the importance of rhythms yesterday, listening to James Clear tell the story of Mitch.

To create a habit of going to the gym, Mitch would turn up every day, even on the worst days, just for 5 minutes and then leave.

It worked. The rhythm was laid. The habit formed.

I’m not sure the man in the photo was universally liked for the immovable cadence of the Friday morning forecast call. I see that now in the paradoxical humour of the meme.

But habits, when formed, are as critical to continuous improvement as they are to emotional reliability.

With the high-stakes environment, digital noise, pressure from above, stakeholder ambiguities and technological disruptions of the rest of the working week, Friday mornings felt like solid ground.

And from this solid ground, we could reach for our highest potential.