systems thinking

Finding Rhythm and heartbeats of a business

In this article I talk about the rhythm of a business - and how we must get involved to understand it.

Every business has a rhythm. A flow. A heartbeat. From meeting cadences, to releases, to hiring cycles, to how people work with others.

We may not pay much attention to the rhythm of the business, in fact, we may not even be aware of it. But it has one.

The most obvious way to understand the rhythm of a business is to simply study the “standing” meetings, events and release cycles.

It’s why an “agile” methodology using “ceremonies” or “events” (stand-ups, retrospectives, planning etc) can be effective in companies that don’t have a frequent, consistent rhythm of meetings. It can help to bring a sense of harmony to what was a sporadic rhythm. Implementing a regular heartbeat of "standing meetings", with a clear purpose and a focus on outcomes for each meeting, can really bring some sense of harmonic rhythm to a team. Of course, it helps if the meetings are well run.

Whatever approach to work you have, start by studying the meetings and events - it’s the easiest place to start making sense of the rhythm. (Quast, n.d.)

It could be monthly review meetings, quarterly planning, 6-month release cycles, daily stand-ups etc - these are all heartbeats, or rhythm moments, that you can study, ensure are consistent and help you to understand more about the business.

But these are meetings. They are events. They tell only one part of a bigger story.

The rhythm of work

I had my hair cut today (well, what is left of it) and the barber had a rather intriguing rhythm to his work.

After finishing with the electric shaver, he grabbed the scissors and proceeded, in perfect timing, to cut (open and close the scissors) constantly - even when he wasn’t actually cutting my hair.

When he was talking to me his hand was opening and closing the scissors - cutting thin air. When he was moving around, or using the comb, or even the hair dryer, he was still clipping away to a rhythm; never stopping until he had finished with the scissors.

It’s a rhythm that accompanied his work. Until he didn’t need to use the scissors.

And we often overlook this in business - that there is a time when we are “working” and it has rhythm. It has a beat. We are heads down delivering the value the business needs - and then we break. We do something else, we have a meeting, we take a break from work, we go surfing, whatever. And then we work again. Each stage, work or event has its own rhythm.

I’ve talked before about the open and closed creative process; this is a cycle and rhythm. You can no doubt look at your own business and see how the rhythms of the business change depending on the activities and seasons of work. We don’t work 100% - and that’s part of an overall business rhythm. (Or it should be). And if we do all work 100% of our work hours (and more), then don't be surprised if the rhythm collapses or wanes. Burnout will be present, disengagement high and quiet quitting rife. There's only so long we can sustain a full on rhythm of delivery.

The rhythm will vary per activity, and rightly so. It will vary per person. But collectively we’re all working within a rhythm, and contributing to it.

If managers and leaders only focus on “standing” events like meetings to understand the rhythm, and draw conclusions from what they see (as it's the easiest place to start), they will only see one part of a larger system of rhythms and heartbeats. The rhythm is more than just meetings.

And frankly, life is too fleeting to spend it in another meeting.

If all we’re doing is having meetings, we’ve got a monumental problem in our business. Work needs to get done - and it happens to a rhythm, to a beat, to a cadence.

The rhythm of a business is the whole business, not just the meetings and events. (Shuman and Rottenberg, 1998) And it contains meetings, work and regular delivery of value. It needs to be consistent (ever tried listening to music that is wildly sporadic in tempo, beat and rhythm?...).

The consistency and rhythm is important to understand, to study and to make sense of. It's the business in motion.

Remove anything that gets in the way

The trick with good management is to remove anything that gets in the way of people finding, and operating, within these rhythms. Giving people time for deep work is an obvious tactic, as is allowing a more flexible working environment.

It will also help to have clarity, alignment and action - as wildly varying demands, chaos and misdirection during our work days could contribute to a drop in wellbeing and emotional stability (Nepal et al., 2023). If every day is different, and there is chaos ensuing, how could a company ever develop a rhythm?

But what good managers and leaders do is to get company smart by diving into the rhythm, working out how work moves through the business and keeping mental (or physical) notes of the rhythm of a business.

It all sounds a little fluffy, but almost every successful entrepreneur will at some point “sense” the business they are running. They will “feel” it and intuitively know how the business is performing and operating. (Hawken, 1987) This is the rhythm and it's more than meetings.

And maybe that "sensing" only lasts until the business is too big to even comprehend, but they will “know” how the business is performing because they are immersed and engaged in it - not sitting behind a desk removed from the work itself, or passively studying update reports.

Managers need to get involved "in" the business to understand it, but work "on" the business to improve it.

It’s hard to do in a large company for sure, but the rhythm of the business is the business itself. And the only way to truly feel, sense and understand the rhythm is to actively contribute and dance with it.

Of course, “sensing” a business doesn’t come naturally to everyone, so maybe start with the “standing” events and meetings - they are easier to understand (and implement).