Unsuccessfully ‘Passing the Baton’ is Not Limited to Track & Field
In business and life, sometimes the baton is missing, sometimes the baton is dropped, and sometimes the baton hasn’t been set up.
In this article you’ll learn:
- What makes a successful ‘baton pass’
- Why it’s important, and
- How to execute it in all areas of your life.
Epic Olympic Baton Failures and Successes
Failure
If you ask the 2008 United States Olympic Men’s 400-meter relay team why it’s important to successfully pass the baton, they’ll tell you that even the fastest runner in the world can’t help your team win if you don’t get the baton.
In the words of relay race teammate Tyson Gay, following and unsuccessful baton pass that eliminated their chance at Olympic gold:
“I take full blame for it. I feel like I let my teammates down.”
Fellow teammate, Darvis Patton, the teammate who was passing the baton to Tyson Gay said he was every bit as much to blame.
“That’s Tyson Gay,” he said. “He’s a humble guy, but I know it’s my job to get the guy the baton and I didn’t do that.”
The team had prepared for years for this race and, in one bad baton pass, everyone on the team — and those who supported them — felt frustration and defeat.
Following the race, the chief executive officer of USA Track & Field, Doug Logan, promised “a comprehensive review” of all of the team’s programs. “Included in this assessment,” he said, “will be the way we select, train and coach our relays.”
Success
If you ask the 2016 Japanese Olympic Men’s 4x100m relay team why it’s important to successfully pass the baton, they’ll tell you that executing the best baton pass makes up valuable seconds and positions them to medal in a race no one thought they could win.
None of the Japanese teammates had run a 100m in under the 10 seconds. Other competing teams had individuals who did run the 100m in under 10 seconds.
On paper, there was no way they could medal. They knew the only way they could is if they were more successful executing something they had control over — passing the baton.
After winning the silver medal , Japanese teammate Shota Iizuka was asked about their baton passing strategy:
“We’ve been practicing all the time for about six months, that’s why we’ve done a pretty good job.”
There are times when we receive the baton, times when we pass the baton, times when the baton is dropped, and times when the baton pass hasn’t been set up.
Have you experienced both the satisfaction of their successes and the frustration of their failures?
Examples of Successes, Failures, and Batons Not Set Up
Can you relate to any of these?
- You and your teammates don’t naturally communicate in the same style. You meet together and acknowledge this. You agree on and practice a common communication style for the project. You frequently check in with each other to make sure each person is confident in the communications, making modifications along the way. Everyone stays in sync with each other and there’s no frustration or confusion — a good baton pass.
- You’re part of a team. You’re prepared to complete all your responsibilities accurately and on time. All that’s needed is the information you’re waiting on. It’s delayed, which creates a shorter window for you to successfully complete your responsibilities. In a relay race, the runners must pass the baton successfully in the ‘ changeover box ‘, a specific amount of space where the baton must be passed. If each team member isn’t prepared to pass the baton in the changeover box, it doesn’t matter how well they perform their responsibilities, the team is disqualified. The additional pressure is placed on you and everyone else on your team — a bad baton pass.
- You’ve researched the steps required to complete a task you’re working on alone. You complete each of the steps according to the directions and move on to your next assignment. Sometime later you’re contacted asking when you’ll have your information completed. You learn the step that transfers your information to where it needs to go hasn’t been set up from your end — no baton pass.
Whether it’s successfully navigating transitions or our responsibilities as part of a team, community, or family, it’s important to recognize each ‘baton pass’, clarify what’s required for its success, who is involved in the ‘baton pass’, and how you’ll know if it’s been successful.
5 Steps to Ensure The Baton is Passed Successfully
Step 1 — Know What You Want, Know Where You Want to Be
- What specifically do you want?
- For what purpose do you want it?
- What will you gain or lose if you achieve it?
- What will you gain or lose if you don’t achieve it?
- How will you feel when you’re successful?
- How will you feel if you’re unsuccessful?
- How will this impact you in each area of your life?
Step 2 — How is it That I Don’t Already Have it?
- What resources are required for your success?
- Who else must be involved?
- Is there anything holding you back from achieving success?
- What is the timeframe?
- Ask yourself the question successful entrepreneur asks: Gary W. Keller “What is the ONE thing you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
Step 3 — Massive Acceptance, Radical Presence, 100% Responsibility
- Accept 100% responsibility for exactly where you are right now without judgement. You don’t have to like it, agree with it, or understand it.
- Without bringing in the past or fortune telling the future, stay fully present in the moment.
- How do you feel about what you want?
- Is there any resistance in you about what you want?
- Do you have any concerns about anyone else on your team?
- Do you feel confident this is really what you want?
Step 4 — Clarify, Understand, and Align What’s Most Important and What You Believe to be True.
- Is your purpose statement aligned with what you want in your life?
- If you don’t have a purpose statement, are you ready to create one?
- What is most important to you — your values?
- What do you believe to be true — your beliefs?
- Is what you want aligned with these?
Step 5 — What Has to Happen for Me to Get Where I Want to Be?
- Write down how you’ll know you’ve achieved success.
- Identify 5–10 things you would have had to have done to achieve what you want.
- Begin with one of the things on your list and keep going through your list, continuously checking in to make sure you’re still aligned with your vision of success.
When You Implement These 5 Steps:
- You move quickly to knowing what you really want.
- You eliminate anything holding you back from moving with clarity in the right direction.
- You’re able to recognize a potential bad baton pass and take wise action so it’s a successful baton pass.
- You feel satisfied and celebrate the successful baton pass knowing nothing’s missing.
- When you realize a baton pass is missing, you’re able to work with acceptance and presence and without judgement, determine what’s needed. You take wise action to achieve what you know you want.
When You Don’t Implement These 5 Steps
We’ve identified the impact of an unsuccessful baton toss in track & field. Here are a few statistics of the negative impct of bad baton passes on business. According to a report by Mitel Networks, a global leader in enterprise communications:
Nearly 15 percent of employees’ total work time is wasted inefficient communications.
Businesses with 500 employees could be losing well over $5 million annually.
One result Nintex’s Definitive Guide to America’s Most Ineffective Processes report:
Inefficiencies cause a worker to spend an average of 2.5 hours per day, looking for information. Assuming now an average yearly salary of 80,000 $, the inability to find and retrieve document costs organization, that employs 1000 workers, $25 million per year.
Baton passes, the handoff’s required for each task of a goal/project/event to be successfully completed, are based on knowing:
- Each baton pass and what’s required.
- Who is responsible for each end of the pass.
- What the changeover box (success) is for each pass.
If you’re curious about what else is possible, let’s start a conversation.
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Originally published at https://sueryan.solutions on March 29, 2021.
