Digital Transformation: why you should run for it.
During my youth I used to practice several sports, but martial arts was always my passion. I always enjoyed the sensation of leaving everything behind on a mat or a fighting ring, but since 2015 I had not trained at all. Worse, during 2020, while my brain was working hard, my body got a sabbatical year. I needed to wake it up and make it sweat for a change.
It was the eleventh hour of 2020 and I was enjoying a deserved break after a long and stressful year when I decided to take a boxing class at my former academy. I don’t have to say that it was ugly — and by ugly, I mean really ugly.
A couple of days later I exchanged a few messages with my coach. He encouraged me to start running to regain body conditioning and informed me that he would only accept me into his academy when I was able to run 10k. “10k? I haven’t been able to run 10k since 2005,” I said.
I was always a bad runner so hearing that was really demotivating, but for some reason I decided to install the Nike Run Club app and give a try. That’s when I “met” Chris Bennett, the Global Head Coach of Nike Run Club. Coach Bennett gives guided runs for beginners like me — for experienced runners too, I am just not there yet. When I first played his guided training, I was expecting some running tips, like how to control your pace, your heartbeat, etc. But he went far beyond this. Coach Bennett teaches you how to build the right mindset to become a frequent runner.
Why is this important and what does it have to do with digital transformation? Well… everything!
Although some people may compare his advice to what you find in simple self-help books, it affected me differently. I finally realized why I could never appreciate running, and most importantly, the reason why I was always giving up. And even more exciting, I started making parallels between his advice and how to combat the frequent issues I encounter about making the shift to digital-first in our business. So, let me share a few thoughts with you.
The most important thing is that you are here. Again.
As everything in life, if we don’t show up to the starting line, we will never achieve our goals. That’s important, of course it is, but even more important is to practice showing up over and over until you get comfortable with it. Are you tired? Be there. Are you afraid? Be there. After a few weeks of running towards your goals you will notice that you went farther than you could even imagine.
“Every day a staring line. And what you do between the line…. And the next line will decide whether you ran the race of your life.”
Run at an easy pace
Just as much as we want to run at the speed of light or a marathon on day 1, the same happens when we initiate a transformation in our companies. We hear fancy buzz words everywhere and tend to want to immediately jump to very complex digital tools when we are not even prepared to do the basics. Take a breath. You don’t need to implement artificial intelligence in your company until you have some human comprehension of what artificial intelligence even is. Run easy, so you can run always.
“We’ve been taught that running is supposed to be hard. We’ve been told that easy running is not “real” running. We’ve been conditioned to start our runs too hard, and therefore we’ve experienced too many runs that ended too early because the run became too much, and that left us feeling — well, not too good. And when every run ends with us feeling like failures, we just stop starting runs.”
If you hate running, you’re probably running the wrong way
Another inconvenient true. If you are still reluctant to digitize and embrace transformation in your organization, it’s because you are doing something wrong. Look around. Where are you reading this article right now? There’s no way things will continue to work the same way they did five or ten years ago. Surround yourself with people that can show you the path to the future. Get some advice from people who push the boundaries and don’t accept the status quo. Ask. Ask again. Ask another time until you feel like you are ready to take the chance. Accepting change is the process of understanding that staying in the place you are today is a bigger risk than taking the chance to go somewhere else.
Every run has a purpose
Long runs, recovery runs, speed runs. Sometimes you need to go fast, sometimes you need to go further. Sometimes you just need to try something new. Life is not a straight line, and neither is changing your company. Adapt yourself, seek out new skills, experience different things and learn from them. Every run has a purpose and so do you. What do you want to achieve from your long run? Can technology help you to get there? Well, it is helping me. It has been 30 days since I started running with NRC. After 54 miles and 13 runs later I can tell you that I am a much better runner than I was before, and for the first time, I am enjoying putting on my shoes and headphones and going as far as I can. I’m still in the middle of my journey, but I am enjoying every mile.
