Are You Stuck on the Same Treadmill?

… Teams meeting where the management Team was presenting their updates from last week and discussing goals for the week and Bob¹ had just finished presenting, when he said:

“We’re doing everything we can to grow… and yet we’re stuck. Nothing’s moving.”

You could have heard a pin drop. Bob was saying what everyone else was thinking.

This Team wasn’t new to business. They were doing everything according to the textbook:

📌 Responding to more RFQs

📌 Boosting marketing to support the core business

📌 Cutting costs

📌 Driving profitability project by project

📌 Maximizing utilization

📌 Tightening DSO metrics

On paper, it was solid. But it wasn’t working.

“It feels like we’re pedaling harder, but the bike’s not moving,” Bob said. And honestly, it resonated.

Let me ask you something

🧠 When was the last time you sat down — really sat down — to think about what your business needs today in order to thrive in the future?

And I am not talking about next month’s revenue or next quarter’s financial report.

I am also not talking about a new hire or quarterly margin tweaks.

What I am talking about and what I want to know is …

When was the last time you thought about that? Last week? Last quarter? Can’t remember?

If you’re thinking, “But we have been working on the future. We’ve been focusing on the same things as Bob and his Team — that must count, right?”

Here’s the tough truth:

You’re not working on your future — you’re maintaining your present and potentially even sacrificing your future.

You’re focusing solely on hygiene². Not health².

And that distinction matters.

The trap of transformation

When people or organizations are asked to change — to transform in order to grow— we all tend to do the same thing:

We revert to what we know.

We double down on the familiar.

We do more of what’s already in motion.

We optimize what’s already in place.

It feels productive—but it’s just familiar. And familiar doesn’t equal forward.

And in doing so, we often deprive ourselves of the very resources we need to grow.

We overmanage the short term

And we undermanage the long term — which is exactly where the growth potential lies.

There are two types of growth:

What Bob and his team— and many others — are doing isn’t wrong. It just isn’t intentional growth.

And intentional growth is the growth that matters for the long run.

Also, a quick reminder:

Profitability ≠ Growth.

Not unless it’s strategic. Not unless it’s future-focused.

Otherwise, it’s just margin polishing.

In Managing the Professional Service Firm, David Maister draws a powerful line between two types of focus²:

🧼 Hygiene: Taking care of short-term profitability

💪 Health: Investing in long-term capability

You need both.

But neglecting one for the other?

That’s how great businesses start to drift.

So ask yourself this:

Are you investing in your future?

Or are you just getting better at surviving the present?

Because if you’re stuck pedaling like Bob…

It might be time to step off the treadmill — and start walking a new path!

^{1) “Bob” is a completely fictitious character. If you’re thinking, “Wait… I know Bob,” then congratulations — you probably know several. Also, the meeting, the pin drop … were all made up. Or were they?} 😉

^{2) The terms of “hygiene” and “health” are taken from David Maister’s book “Managing the Professional Service Firm”, in which he writes: “… their control systems are designed to focus on short-term profitability (what I term “hygiene”), and ignore the issue of “health” (i.e. increasing the fundamental profit potential of the organization)”.}