A former Business School classmate of mine, Rich Wilson, is an avid, and some might say slightly mad, sailor who has used his love of the sea as the foundation of a non-profit organization called sitesALIVE (http://www.sitesalive.com) that provides K-12 learning adventures. He is currently more than half way through a solo around-the-world race called the Vendee Globe, which requires participants to sail through unthinkably rough and stormy seas without receiving any more assistance than advice and counsel. He can’t dock anywhere to do repairs, can’t let anyone on the boat, or accept any deliveries. The vagaries of the sea, the unknown dangers, the weather reports that say 20 knots of wind when Nature is serving up 40-50 knots, all conspire to create an environment that, despite all his training and experience, consistently presents unexpected challenges to his ingenuity and survival instinct.
I’m following his progress daily, as Rich is a good friend, but I’m also reading about the other sailors, marveling at miraculous rescues at sea, shaking my head at the disasters that strike swiftly both the leaders and the back of the pack. But more than anything, I am awed by the courage, as well as mystified by the willingness, of this small band of men and women to take to the sea alone in small boats, committed to remaining out of sight of land, except at a great distance, for more than 3 months.
Last night, as I was reading Rich’s latest log entry, it occurred to me that lately we are all losing sight of land. Since the dot com bust, we have been shaken, stirred, dropped, kicked, elevated, depressed, celebrated, vilified…and just when we thought it was time to put into port and rest, our boat turned turtle, or we fell in the companionway and fractured a rib, or our rudder snapped off, or our mast toppled over into the water and there we were, in the middle of the ocean, with no obvious way to get back home in one piece.
It’s a tough time – probably not as bad as the papers say or as good as we would like it to be, most likely somewhere in the middle. But regardless, all our assumptions have been challenged once again. How do we remain effective in a time when all bets are off? When a great company with a great product and a great future finds itself in the midst of layoffs and salary cuts and hiring freezes? When the startup funding dries up? When the solid, established financial institutions are gulping and gasping? When our mortgages and our retirement accounts are at risk? Times like these try not only our souls, but our courage, our initiative, and our ability to roll with the waves and stay in the boat.
In an eerie coincidence, as I was working on the first draft of this blog entry, a colleague came into my office to discuss some changes that required us to reset our expectations. He said, “The trouble is, we are trying to deal with something we’ve never encountered before, and there aren’t any markers. How do we forecast? How do we predict? It’s like sailing in a fog.”
In Silicon Valley, technology is the wind that moves the boat forward. And, for the most part, the technology is sound. But technology can’t save us from the unexpected, so we are called on to stay awake, to pay attention, to be in the moment, to take nothing for granted. We need to be grounded, but not rigid, and to keep creating ways to sustain effectiveness in the face of difficulty. We may be managers, team members, individual contributors or consultants, but we are all called upon to be leaders. When the boat is out of sight of land, or the fog rolls in, it will be our ability to stay flexible, and to reinvent ourselves as circumstances change that will put us back on solid ground.
(Information on Rich Wilson’s Vendee Globe progress can be found at http://vg.sitesalive.com. The Vendee Globe main site is http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en)
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Author: Courtney Behm holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Performing Arts and Communication, and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business. In her corporate career, she has worked for wildly successful companies, and those struggling to stay afloat in the ocean of change. Through her consulting company, Viewpoint Solutions (www.ViewpointSolutions.com), she has helped a diverse client base, including Sun Microsystems, Adobe Systems, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, find creative solutions to classic business problems. An accomplished speaker, Courtney uses a combination of language, humor, insight and front-line experience to offer a fresh perspective on life in the fast lane. In 2006, she returned to the corporate world, and is currently Senior Project Manager at i365, A Seagate Company. She is writing a book on how to lead effectively in a time of constant change, and collaborating on a book on Personal Career Management.
I’m following his progress daily, as Rich is a good friend, but I’m also reading about the other sailors, marveling at miraculous rescues at sea, shaking my head at the disasters that strike swiftly both the leaders and the back of the pack. But more than anything, I am awed by the courage, as well as mystified by the willingness, of this small band of men and women to take to the sea alone in small boats, committed to remaining out of sight of land, except at a great distance, for more than 3 months.
Last night, as I was reading Rich’s latest log entry, it occurred to me that lately we are all losing sight of land. Since the dot com bust, we have been shaken, stirred, dropped, kicked, elevated, depressed, celebrated, vilified…and just when we thought it was time to put into port and rest, our boat turned turtle, or we fell in the companionway and fractured a rib, or our rudder snapped off, or our mast toppled over into the water and there we were, in the middle of the ocean, with no obvious way to get back home in one piece.
It’s a tough time – probably not as bad as the papers say or as good as we would like it to be, most likely somewhere in the middle. But regardless, all our assumptions have been challenged once again. How do we remain effective in a time when all bets are off? When a great company with a great product and a great future finds itself in the midst of layoffs and salary cuts and hiring freezes? When the startup funding dries up? When the solid, established financial institutions are gulping and gasping? When our mortgages and our retirement accounts are at risk? Times like these try not only our souls, but our courage, our initiative, and our ability to roll with the waves and stay in the boat.
In an eerie coincidence, as I was working on the first draft of this blog entry, a colleague came into my office to discuss some changes that required us to reset our expectations. He said, “The trouble is, we are trying to deal with something we’ve never encountered before, and there aren’t any markers. How do we forecast? How do we predict? It’s like sailing in a fog.”
In Silicon Valley, technology is the wind that moves the boat forward. And, for the most part, the technology is sound. But technology can’t save us from the unexpected, so we are called on to stay awake, to pay attention, to be in the moment, to take nothing for granted. We need to be grounded, but not rigid, and to keep creating ways to sustain effectiveness in the face of difficulty. We may be managers, team members, individual contributors or consultants, but we are all called upon to be leaders. When the boat is out of sight of land, or the fog rolls in, it will be our ability to stay flexible, and to reinvent ourselves as circumstances change that will put us back on solid ground.
(Information on Rich Wilson’s Vendee Globe progress can be found at http://vg.sitesalive.com. The Vendee Globe main site is http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en)
_________________________________
Author: Courtney Behm holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Performing Arts and Communication, and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business. In her corporate career, she has worked for wildly successful companies, and those struggling to stay afloat in the ocean of change. Through her consulting company, Viewpoint Solutions (www.ViewpointSolutions.com), she has helped a diverse client base, including Sun Microsystems, Adobe Systems, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, find creative solutions to classic business problems. An accomplished speaker, Courtney uses a combination of language, humor, insight and front-line experience to offer a fresh perspective on life in the fast lane. In 2006, she returned to the corporate world, and is currently Senior Project Manager at i365, A Seagate Company. She is writing a book on how to lead effectively in a time of constant change, and collaborating on a book on Personal Career Management.
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