Although I’m not great at it, surfing a longboard—any surfboard with a length of more than 9ft—is a joy.
The people who are good at it can often be found walking up and down the length of the board.
This got me thinking.
When we’re on a wave, and it’s moving faster than we are, we can take a step forward to stay on it.
Similarly, if it’s moving too slowly, we can step backward and wait for the wave to catch up.
I think our teams function in a similar way. The problems, opportunities, and challenges we face are like that waves that roll in.
As group, we decide if we need to be a bit more aggressive and move to the front of the board. Too much though, and we nose dive. Alternatively, we may think we need to slow down, and move to the back of the board. If we move too far back though, we fall off the back of the wave due to a lack of momentum.
It takes deliberate practise, care, and intuition to know where to position yourself on the longboard—in the water and in life.