On November 9th, 2006, the Rutgers football team was having a bad night – but they just kept “chopping wood”.
It had started badly. Louisville returned the opening kick-off for a touchdown. Then Louisville could do no wrong getting 25 points before Rutgers would score on the last play before the half. Going to the locker room, loosing 25-7 at half-time, Coach Schiano would talk to the team:
“Just keep chopping away guys. It’ll turn, if you let it – it’ll turn. You just gotta keep doing it though. If you don’t do it, you’ll never know what could have happened.”
The second half was like a new game. Louisville would not score again. Rutgers won, on a field goal with 13 seconds left, 28-25.
Asked by a reporter at the press conference, if a moment stood out for him, coach Schiano answered:
“There was a moment when Eric Fosters came walking down the sideline like this (coach makes hand chopping movement), and we passed each other and he never even looked at me he was so focused… At that point I said, you know what, these sons of a gun just might do this.”
The Washington post would write about the chop on the week-end:
“He (coach Schiano) first heard about it from Dr. Kevin Elko while serving as Miami’s defensive coordinator… Right now we’re in a bad spot, we’re in the middle of the forest, it’s all dark, we can’t see. Get an ax and just start chopping away.”
The “Chop” is your process.
It‘s not just for sports. It applies to all aspects of life – including work. Define your process for success. Then stay focused, keep applying it. Keep “chopping wood”. I will turn.
It’s easy to keep chopping when everything is working. At the start of a project, teams are newly formed, project plans are glowing with optimism – everybody is following the process. But then reality sets in. Metrics and reports start coming in. Some tasks are late. Some are over budget. Documents are not approved, design reviews fail. Then it’s gets harder to stay focused on the process.
Coach Schiano speaks of this in the press conference:
“Let’s do what we can do. You can’t control the results; you can only control the process.”
It takes focus and dedication to apply a process flawlessly. It takes even more willpower to stay with the process when the score – the results – are not going your way.
The score is useful: it tells you two things:
- How well you’re working your process
- If you are working the process well: How good is your process.
But the score can also distract. If your results are great, you might relax and get off process. If your results are poor, you can loose faith in your process, and start acting like a headless chicken – expanding tremendous energy without aim and focus.
Does your team have a process? Does every member of the team apply it?
- How do you define objectives so everybody is on the same page?
- How to you assign work and obtain commitment?
- How to you assess risks and deal with it? How often do you re-plan?
- How do you deal with issues and failure?
- How do you communicate with other teams?
- …
Do not confuse process and audited procedures (ISO, CMM etc.). Of course, these procedures - if they are used – can be your process. But they can lack details for your particular team. So look at how you work. Your process is what you do. Define it as a team. Get buy-in. Then stay with it.
Stop looking at the score – Stay on process.
