Zone 2 strategy
To run fast, you need to get good at running slow.
There is a lot of theory that gets thrown at road running.
All sorts of weird and wonderful methods can be applied to training, nutrition and the gear that you should be considering, if achieving your best is your intention.
One of the most interesting ideas as to how to improve running speed, is called Zone 2 training.
The basic idea is...that to run faster, you need to consciously do training runs that are consistently at 80% of maximum effort.
To run fast, you need to get good at running slow.
It might sound easy…get good at running slow; but controlling your pace down to a level that doesn’t unnecessarily elevate your heart rate, is incredibly challenging.
Probably because controlling your stride and finding a rhythm at a slower pace takes lots of concentration and discipline to stay within a very narrow constraint.
Zone 2 strategy
And it is this same dedication to narrow guardrails (that don’t overly tax the overall system) that is also of applicable to innovation.
Success in this realm, too, is usually because of 'an ongoing and continuous slow-burn of focused attention'.
Throw too much money and energy at strategy, all-at-once, and the overall organisational system will be thrown off-balance.
Just the same as if you must try run a marathon when not marathon fit, the result will be an injury and, more than likely, a distinct reluctance to try such madness ever again.
To successfully develop strategy as a foundation of any organisation’s culture the approach must be one of Zone 2 strategic implementation.
And just like finishing a marathon without hating yourself afterwards, the secret to success is consistency and a commitment to going slow.