Sprints Become Marathons

At the school track meet today, your event is a sprint, once around the track. You’ll use all your fuel to win.

Halfway through, the coach yells surprising news: the event has been changed midway. It is now a marathon. Instead of half a lap, you have 26 miles to go.

What? If you’d known at the start, you would have paced yourself differently. Or not entered at all. Can you even finish a marathon, with half your fuel gone?

Thankfully, this would never happen at a real track meet. But it happens all the time in complex cultural projects.

Our sprints become marathons so often that the reverse would be more surprising.

For team members compensated hourly, this might only mean waiting longer to be done. But for those with fixed resource contracts, this can present an existential threat.

If you are one of those or oversee those who are, stop believing that sprints stay sprints. Pace yourself. Preserve resources. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Because the coach will often have news for you partway.

Here’s the thing:
Sprints become marathons. Don’t pretend otherwise. And plan accordingly.

Warmly,
Jonathan