What Boston Marathon Prep Reveals About Designing High Performing Organizations

Whether you are setting out to qualify for the Boston Marathon or reorganize your business, a reliable process enables you to achieve reliable results (performance). Last week’s Boston Marathon had me reflecting on the similarity between preparing for the big race and reorganizing a business. On the surface, this may seem like a stretch but bear with me here.

I have been a runner for most of my life, logging over 115,000 km and running dozens of races over the years. I have been fortunate to participate in several of running’s signature events, including the Boston Marathon.

The Boston Marathon offers the recreational athlete the rare opportunity to participate in one of the world’s most iconic sporting events alongside some of the best athletes. But you can’t just sign up. To enter, you must qualify by running another marathon and achieving a qualifying time for your age group.

As I have gotten older, I have challenged myself by qualifying for the standard 2 age groups below my age. How did I do this? To begin with, I learned the fundamentals of marathon training. During my university years, I was fortunate to train with some of the top runners in the country, who taught me how to prepare properly for a successful race. I learned the process for completing a marathon. I set targets based on my times in shorter races, put in the hours, and achieved the results I wanted. I retired from marathoning for 25 years but decided to return to the sport and researched how marathon training had evolved. Having a family and consulting full-time meant I could not devote all my time to marathoning, so I tailored my training plans to allow me to do the work necessary to qualify for Boston with a “respectable” time without interfering with my other priorities. My approach allowed me to reliably qualify for and complete the Boston or New York City marathons whenever I set my mind to it. 

The same can be true of undertaking an organizational design effort. I learned the art and principles of organization design from experts. My business partners and I developed processes that enabled us to apply these lessons consistently. An effective organization structure supports strategy delivery, drives high performance, fosters innovation and growth, and supports talent development. Applying these processes enables leaders to reliably create value and achieve measurable results while fostering work environments that support personal and organizational growth.