Say no to the hamster wheel

You might have seen a hamster wheel. It’s a small circular wire cage that rotates around a central axle, much like a tire rotates around the axle of your car, and inside the cage is an energetic hamster. In our usual image of the hamster, he is running furiously, spinning the wheel at high speed.

From the hamster’s point of view, life inside the wheel may actually appear quite normal. The hamster is an energetic animal by nature, and he’s doing what he knows how to do: run like heck. And he’s making real progress too—he can see the blur of spokes flying by him as he runs.

Unfortunately, his position relative to the ground beneath the cage indicates that he’s actually going nowhere. He’s really just expending lots of calories without creating real forward progress, although, as the line goes, he’s making great time.

A Client Story

Early in our engagement with a new client, we discovered a beehive of activity. People and equipment were in constant motion. It was, at first, quite an impressive display. The place was hopping.

The company was a manufacturer of highly specialized communications equipment. In fact, at the time, they were the only provider of this equipment in the country, having pioneered the products and virtually created the market space themselves. It was a highly creative place, and we really liked the owners and employees.

Unfortunately, it also was a place of wasted motion. People were, literally and figuratively, running in circles. Goals were either missing or unclear, people’s assignments and responsibilities were undefined or ambiguous, and there were more than a few squabbles about who should be doing what. But, boy, everybody sure was busy, and it certainly typified the type of environment common in many high-growth start-up companies.

We could picture these humans in their own hamster wheel. They were spinning round and round, but they weren’t making progress toward any ambitious goals. In fact, there were no goals for the company or the individuals.

All too often, the hamster cage is a metaphor for managers. They too run hard, expending lots of calories. Instead of a wheel-shaped cage, though, they move people and resources. And they often feel satisfied that this constant hard work is some form of progress. After all, they can see the spokes flying by them—things are moving.

Real progress, of course, is the movement of the individual and the company relative to their goals. If they can find a way to look outside their cage, they can determine if they are making real progress or simply spinning their wheels.

Establishing goals regularly, and measuring progress relative to those goals, allows you to see outside the cage. It provides you with a big-picture focus on the Vital Few, and it substitutes focus and direction, toward a clear and desired outcome, for frantic activity.

Say no to the hamster wheel. Have clear goals for everyone, establish them regularly, and measure progress relative to those goals all the time.

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