Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?

Every year around this time, I find myself reflecting on what truly matters for organizational success. What actually moves us forward versus what just keeps us busy. And recently, one powerful metaphor keeps coming back to me: rowing.

Not the gym-machine version of rowing, but the kind you see on the water with eight people and one boat. When they’re aligned, the boat flies. When they’re not, it drags.

I recently came across a story that is one of the best examples of this: the eight-man British rowing team that competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. They hadn’t won gold since 1912, despite decades of effort. So the team adopted a simple decision filter:

“Will it make the boat go faster?”

Every choice, like training, recovery, and meetings, ran through that filter. If the answer was yes, they did it. If not, they didn’t. No debate. No ego. Just alignment.

And in Sydney, after nearly 90 years, they won the gold.

Why This Matters for Us

Now, I’m not training to row in the Olympics, but the lesson still hits home.

In business, and especially in continuous improvement, we often find ourselves working really hard on things that may or may not actually add value. Things that keep us busy but don’t move us forward. Things that feel important but don’t improve flow, reduce variation, or ultimately serve our customers.

Put another way…not every stroke moves the boat forward.

And here’s the truth most leaders eventually learn the hard way: Sustained organizational speed comes from alignment and synchronization, not effort.

A team of eight people rowing in eight different rhythms doesn’t go eight times faster. It goes in circles.

A team of eight people rowing in one rhythm? Well, that just may be a gold medal boat.

A Question for the Year Ahead

As we move into the new year, I’d challenge all of us to borrow that Olympic mindset:

Will it make the boat go faster?

• Does this project improve flow?
• Does this decision serve our customers better?
• Does this action get us closer to the organization we want to be?

If the answer is yes, let’s double down.
If the answer is no, let it go.

Because at the end of the day, great teams don’t just row hard, they row together.

Same boat. Same rhythm. Same mission.

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