A Few Words About Operating States

Every business, every project, every commitment you drive from idea to physical reality passes through several operating states. I had the opportunity to learn about these states several years ago while working for Landmark Education. I don’t know if they’re taught anywhere else, but these tools are extremely valuable for understanding the relationship between work and results over the lifetime of a project, a commitment or a business.

An operating state is a level of operation with very specific characteristics. There are several different levels with many different characteristics. In the beginning, when you first define what it is that you’re out to accomplish and you start putting together the pieces, you’re in an operating state called “Formulation”. The key in this operating state is to bring order from the chaos, literally creating and defining the pieces, the levers and dials, the structures, and the work itself. Results are rare and inconsistent.

Once you have the basic systems and tools in place and you have a defined structure of some sort, you move into “Concentration”. Concentration is characterized by the need to work consistently over time in order to see results. This is a state of grinding out the results, sometimes with very little joy or satisfaction. In this state, the key is to keep working consistently, whether you see results or not, whether you want to or not, whether you’re tired or not. You have to keep grinding out results in order to get to the next level. The ratio of effort to results is skewed toward the effort side. In other words, it may take 10 units of effort to produce 1 unit of results, so it can be very discouraging. Many businesses fail in the first three years because people get tired and burnt out while operating in Concentration.

The next operating state is called “Momentum”. In Momentum, all the hard work and consistent action is starting to pay off. You have a sense that things are starting to get a little easier. The ratio of effort to results is between 1:1 (Low Momentum) and 1:10 (High Momentum). There are two common challenges in Momentum. The first is that when people start to experience Momentum, they think they can take their foot off the gas. They sit back and expect everything to keep going, neglecting the fact that what got them into Momentum was all the time they spent grinding out the results in Concentration.

The second problem is that Momentum can be overwhelming. Momentum can bring about a flood of information, resources, energy and results that can render your current management systems and structures completely inadequate. Things start to get disorganized and chaotic again, because there’s so much energy. The pitfall here is that people tend to get overwhelmed and try to suppress the results (consciously or unconsciously) in order to make the situation more comfortable and manageable again. The key issue here is to fortify your management systems and structures so they can support and manage all the energy and information coming at you, with room to spare.

A good question to ask when experiencing the flood of Momentum is whether you’re really lacking the right systems to manage the workload, or whether you’re having trouble ensuring that the systems you have are being used correctly and consistently. In other words, is there already a protocol in place that’s not being followed? If so, that’s not pointing to a system failure, it’s pointing to a management/communication failure.

According to Landmark Education’s teachings, there are several higher operating states as well, each with their own characteristics and challenges. I’ll write more about these higher operating states at some point in the future. In the meantime, you can make the best use of this post by thinking about how each of the operating states I described above relate to the different projects, business situations, and commitments you’re currently at work on in your life.

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