When Sprints Become Marathons

At the school track meet today, our event is a sprint, once around the track. We’ll use all our 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, we have 26 miles to go.

What? If we’d known at the start, we would have paced ourselves differently. Or not entered at all. Can we even finish a marathon, with half our 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. Let’s pace ourselves. Preserve our resources. Not get ahead of ourselves. Because the coach will often have news for us partway.

Here’s the thing:
Sprints become marathons.

Let’s not pretend otherwise. And let’s plan accordingly.

Warmly,
Jonathan