It don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that swing….

I wanted to review two key tenets that we have discussed before

1. Discipline is the basis of morale
2. Standards are the basis of improvement

Wanted to add a third rule to this… structure and schedule are the basis of flexibility and improvisation. We need to create a rhythm to our work world. If we have a rhythm, we can make changes as needed during the day. If we have no established structure and schedules (or rhythm for short) than we have made it hard to a) adapt to new situations and b) to get things back on track after something new has come up.

Whether it is a music band, a sports team or a work team – you have to develop a rhythm of how you work. This allows everything to flow together. You cannot wake up one day and expect it to be there. Any more than a band that gets together for its first practice would expect everything to be in the same time the first go round, or a sports team to anticipate each other’s moves in a first practice. This rhythm is essential to achieving excellence – and is something that must be deliberately worked on.

The key point to remember here is this: You have to work to create a structure, schedule and rhythm. And the good news/bad news is – we can never stop working on it. if we are doing great, we need to keep it up, if we are having some challenges – well we have to keep it up.

Checklists, calendars and regular meetings/updates are all part of how we establish rhythm.

Standards, expectations and schedules help us make rhythm habitual.

Debriefing and reviewing lessons learned are also a part of establishing and improving rhythm.

And this type of structure than gives us the power to:

1. To adapt to anything that comes up in a positive way
2. Frees us to focus on how we can be better; as opposed to simply how we keep going.

The more structure and systems we can put in our day, the more freely we can address the challenges in front of us and the opportunity ahead of us.

Discipline, standards, structure and schedules = Morale, improvement and rhythm.

That is our winning formula.