If you too are seeking growth and impact (as individuals and leaders), you are seeking any and all tips, tools, and strategies to navigate today’s (still) challenging and tumultuous environment. You’re in good company. The natural world around us is a powerful source of such ideas, including the natural forces of physics.
We talk about momentum in business and life, but it can feel elusive amid the stops and starts and uncertainties we’ve grown accustomed to. Looking to the original form of momentum: “the quantity of motion of a moving body,” or “the quality that keeps an event developing or making progress after it has started”. Like getting a golf ball onto the green, achieving our desired impact in work and life relies on the ‘events’ we create in our jobs continue making progress after they start.
Regardless of your desired impact (large or small, personal or professional, local or regional, and in any area of change), it’s important to build and keep momentum. Especially on an organizational level, this can feel hard with the many tailwinds and obstacles getting in the way of that progress. Whether from the disjointed nature of hybrid work, budget uncertainty for yourself or customers, or changing customer demands, our momentum is under threat.
What can we do to help our organizations build and keep momentum?
Momentum starts with a push. What will you do to get going?
Start Somewhere
Purposeful leadership generally starts with planning. That’s not wrong, but if you’re really struggling to build momentum, it’s time to flip the script. Rather than starting with a goal or plan (purpose), identifying what would get you one step closer, and then doing that, what would it look like to start with action?
Do something that you know or can imagine will advance the progress you want to make. Then explain why you did it – to yourself, to ‘make meaning,’ and publicly to employees and customers and any other stakeholders. And finally, connect the dots between this action, why you did it, and the bigger picture, whether that’s a product strategy, customer relationship, or parenting challenge.
Meaning Making
As humans, we are meaning-seeking creatures. We have evolved beyond the ‘just do it’ level of functioning of ants who build hills, trees who drop acorns, and dogs who bury bones. We want to know why we are doing these things. And we want to hear that ‘why’ from others around us, to build affection and trust.
It’s for this reason that we often encourage people to think about purpose in its component action parts. Do something – have an impact – and then make meaning of it. Repeat that process enough through your work and/or life, and a purpose will start to emerge. The theme, or North Star, that reveals what it is you care about most.
By starting with action (impact), and then talking about why you did it, you can build momentum.
Similarly, to build momentum, start with action, and then explain it. Make meaning for yourself, and the people around you (whether customers, employees, or other stakeholders), and then talk about it. That bias for action is a powerful differentiator in times of chaos, uncertainty, and change.
In terms of the process above, impact can be interpreted as ‘doing something’. Ideally you’re intentional of what impact your action will have. Then, make meaning – say something to the people who matter about what you did and the impact it had. This action reinforced by communication will build momentum, and ultimately reveal an overarching strategy, or purpose. But because you started with action, that higher level goal will be credible.
Everyone is talking about the change they are going to make, whether in terms of inclusion, sustainability, or growth. By starting with action, you’ll differentiate yourself as the ones actually moving. You’ll have something specific to say, and the momentum builds as you keep doing it, talking about it, and strengthening and refining that broader purpose.
Make A Move
An interesting example is Visa’s move to open a major office in Atlanta, even relocating some senior leaders there. They announced the move in 2021, but didn’t get much notice until they made a real move. The Atlanta office opened earlier this year, with one of their C Suite and another top executive relocating there, not just backend tech roles.
The move has been positioned as primarily angled at enhancing Visa’s ability to attract and retain diverse talent, given Atlanta’s demographics. Compared to all the other diversity policies, commitments, and statements we’ve heard from nearly all of Visa’s counterparts at this point, this one is a standout because of the specific and significant action involved. Stay tuned for how Visa will build and grow this momentum.
What goal is it that your organization wants to build momentum toward? What’s a specific and significant action that would signal your commitment to that goal, or purpose? When can you do it, and who will you tell? Hint: soon, and everyone who’ll listen!
The building block of momentum is action. This is not a pass to ‘move fast and break things,’ but rather an invitation to break out of paralysis-by-analysis, or recession-proof status quo, and have the courage to take action, tell people why you did it, and watch the momentum grow.
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