The Swim is Cancelled

The Swim is Cancelled

The swim is cancelled. As we awoke to that statement booming loudly from the speakers set up for the St. Anthony's triathlon, there was a moment of confusion, followed by a moment of relief, followed by either disappointment or elation. So let me back up. The St. Anthony's triathlon this past weekend attracted the 4,500 participants or so from around the US and farther as usual, and the tension of that many folks preparing to race is always thick. This year for us was a bit different. I couldn't race due to injuries, my husband was racing but hadn't trained with his usual gusto and my son was doing this race as his first Olympic distance. That wasn't, however, what was different. This year we had out of town guests and so we sailed over to the race and spent the night in the marina on the boat, so it'd be a quick step off the dock and onto the track.

During the night the wind howled and the water looked rough...but not that rough. We talked about it and mentally planned for it, but it sure caught us off guard when we heard the news...there would be no swim. I tell you this because it was amazing how quickly the race directors got 4,500 "plus" athletes, to say nothing of the few hundred volunteers, to respond and reorganize. Of course cell phones went on over drive, folks were twittering the news to team mates that were part of relays and it all went off smoothly. I won't go into the detail of how triathlons are arranged by age, time, ability etc., but trust me when I say to cancel the swim and still get everything coordinated was an act of beauty.

So it's this "change on a dime" that I'm thinking about as I write this week. Could my company change on a dime? Could yours? Are our systems what they need to be to make us nimble? They say the greatest advantage a small company (or a department in a large organization) has is its ability to change. In commercial real estate, things seem to change slowly. The markets don't change overnight. Or do they? Maybe they change overnight and we just can't see the changes. Maybe we tend to move along on auto pilot. But how cool is it when we can execute quickly? How profitable can we be if when something changes suddenly, we're prepared? When we're the ones ready to serve or deliver? It's possible. But it won't happen unless you're prepared so ask yourself, what's a "game changing" event in your world? How can you prepare? How successful will you execute? Why? The athletes (customers) were well served on race day, even though many were disappointed. Would you be able to say the same about your clients and customers if the "swim was cancelled"?