Know Your Why

First things first. Sorry for my abrupt and prolonged absence.

I’ve been working on some great projects, traveling, and quite honestly, I did not have the energy to write here. I considered for a half second posting for posting’s sake, but I’m temperamentally opposed to such empty placation.

I wouldn’t want my time wasted with bullshit writing, so I won’t waste yours either.

I’d much rather take a break and then return with substance.

Onward.

But Why?

I had the good fortune of being asked to participate in a discovery call this week with a good friend and their colleague, who I’ll leave anonymous. This call was in reference to finding key performance indicators for health and performance on a mass scale — tens to hundreds of thousands, to give some context.

The bureaucracies that govern the masses, in particular, like to have neat and tidy numbers that show the programs they’re paying for are measurably changing. Fair enough. What they often fail to comprehend is the level of complexity they’re dealing with when it comes to health and performance.

With complexity, all of the component parts of the system in question are interrelated and interdependent. They influence each other constantly. They’re also influenced by the changing environments they’re nested within. The outcomes are often uncertain and nonlinear. This means it is very difficult, with a high degree of certainty, to predict what will and will not have the desired effect.

This is especially true at scale because, “More is different.” (Anderson)

Both of these individuals are intelligent and accomplished and, as it turns out, had an intuitive sense of what I was going to say next:

We should not be starting with KPIs but with the purpose(s) of the system. Once we have those clearly defined, only then can we choose metrics that matter.

Super Local

In large-scale applications, this kind of talk can sound vague and immaterial. An easier place to see how these ideas are displayed is in the “real world” of everyday health and performance.

Over the course of my career, I have mentored many therapists and coaches. When I observe them with clients, I often ask, “Why are you doing that?” Some find this question unnerving and get flustered. Others may be overconfident. I was never asking because I knew, I just wanted to know if they knew.

If we do know the purpose of a particular exercise performed at a particular time, then we can measure its effect.

This, of course, leads to:

• Why today?

• Why is this thing in this session?

• Why for this athlete?

• Why this cycle?

• Why for this sport?

• Why these reps?

And ultimately, what purpose does this thing serve at each of these levels, and ultimately, how do all of them contribute to the larger purpose that you identified in the first place?

As we ask, answer, and then re-ask these questions, we can start to see that they operate at every level of analysis. The better we get at considering the effects at each level, and with each relationship, the more likely we are to move in the direction of what it is we are really trying to accomplish.

Merry Measurables

A simple world feels good. A measurable world feels controllable.

But comfort and control are lies that reduce our effectiveness. This human fallacy seems to appear in every domain — and strikingly, at every level of expertise. Coaches very often pick exercises that are easy to measure the effect of in the weight room, without deep consideration of how they affect what really matters — the field of play.

The best I know in every field strip away junk that is easily measured but doesn’t matter. They look to the purpose of the system they’re creating. They identify the pieces that contribute, and how those pieces dance with each other.

Then, rather than measuring the step on the dance floor, they watch the dance.

A bit all over today, but something I’ve been thinking on a good bit as of late. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Glad to be back,

Rob