Slow Down
In the summer of 2018, my boss approached me and asked that I build a team that could manage the procurement, installation, and ongoing maintenance of a new Digital Out Of Home (DOOH) network that would be deployed across Minor League Baseball stadiums around the country. Coming fresh off another large project this was a lot to ask; however, the team rallied, and I recruited additional members that in turn successfully installed 25 sites before the first pitch of 2019.
With that experience under our belt and additional time before the 2020 baseball season, we immediately went to work refining our processes, partnering with vendors to improve the product, and advancing new sites as quickly as we received word that they wanted to be added to our portfolio.
We were days away from installing our 33rd MiLB club and had our process dialed when COVID-19 shut us down and forced the deployment team to pause—now for the remainder of the year.
This was a gut punch. Since we started this journey in 2017, we had constantly been on our back foot, working tirelessly to develop processes, build equipment, and onboard teammates. What once seemed impossible was now operating better than we could have every hoped and the guys were having fun along the way. Our NASCAR team operated weekly without much need for support from home base, the MiLB deployment team was completing new installs in under a week from start to finish, and the support team back at HQ was solving problems and providing guidance as fast as humanly possible. We were a well-oiled machine that was kicking ass and taking names.
When I think back on the last three years all I can see is a ridiculously fast pace moving from one city to another without an end in sight. And now, while this year has been hard in so many different ways, I realize that what it has provided is time.
Time to stop and think.
That was a luxury that I didn’t properly prioritize in the past. I was trying to think strategically, forecast upcoming opportunities, and build a virtual bench of teammates. However, the operational tempo didn’t allow for the chance to “pause” as much as I would have liked.
Today, I am taking this opportunity to ask myself and my teammates a handful of questions:
- What does success look like?
- Are we doing this as efficiently as possible (in regard to time and budget)?
- Are we working with the right partners?
- What resources do we need to 10x our output?
As NASCAR returns to the track and baseball players take the field, a return to normal is insight (I truly hope for all of our sakes that this is true). I hope that we all have used this time wisely to game plan our next moves and see what we needed to see when we were not able to slow down. If you haven’t developed your game plan for the next 12 months, I encourage you to do so now. And If you need help, I am here for you. This is a moment in time that many of us have needed. It is a time to refocus and reprioritize what’s important. If you haven’t done so already, please take some time to think about and develop your plan for how you are going to crush 2021.
Until next time,
Michael
