Ben Morton argues high-performing teams need deliberate midpoint resets, not just end-of-year reviews. He ran an 86-mile ultramarathon as two 43-mile races with a planned reset halfway through, using four reflection questions to close one chapter and prepare the next. The best teams never skip these pauses, even under pressure.
Think about the last time your team completed a big project and what happened the moment it was done. My guess is probably not a great deal. Maybe there was a brief exhale, some well done and congratulations in a team meeting, and then very quickly you're on to the next thing. Because in our world, there's always a next thing, right? It's a pattern I see all the time when I'm working with different organizations and different teams. They operate in a near constant state of forward motion, project to project, quarter to quarter, crisis to crisis. And the only time they genuinely stop, reflect, and reset often is at the end of the year. It's 11 months of relentless pushing and a brief moment of pause. By the time you're watching or listening to this, I'll have just run my second ultramarathon. And one of the biggest decisions I've made about that race isn't about training or kit or nutrition, but about how I think about the race. In my mind, I'm absolutely not running one 86-mile ultramarathon. I'm running two separate 43-mile races with a deliberate reset in the middle. At the halfway point, there is a checkpoint where you can have a drop bag, and when I reach that point, I'm planning a complete reset, a quick wash, teeth clean, complete change of clothes, because I know mentally I need to close one chapter and get ready for the next. The first half of the race is all about protecting my body so that I can perform in the second half of the race. The halfway point will also be the furthest I will ever have run. My previous ultra marathon was 32 miles. So at 43 miles, regardless of what unfolds in the rest of the race, that moment deserves to be marked. Not with a huge celebration that takes my focus off of the rest of the race, rather quiet acknowledgement. A moment to say to myself, I've achieved something huge. Now let's reset and go again. So here's the leadership question. When does your team get their halfway reset? And we're not just talking about the standard end-of-year review that comes just before the Christmas party. I'm talking about a deliberate midpoint pause where you can reflect on what you've achieved already, reset and readjust before moving forwards. Once again, because without it, there's just constant struggle and no acknowledgement of what's been achieved. And these resets don't need to take a full day offsite somewhere, but they do need to be deliberate and intentional. And I'd suggest starting with just 4 simple questions. What have we achieved? What have we learned that we don't want to carry forward? What have we learned that we do want to carry forwards? And what are we going to do differently going forwards? That's it. And the key is not to think of it as just a cost, but to think about the return that you get on the time invested, because what it gives back in terms of clarity engagement, connection, and energy far outweighs the time you've spent on that reset. The best teams I've had the privilege to be a part of or work with all tend to share one thing in common when it comes to these reset meetings, and that is they don't cancel them when things get busy or when the pressure mounts. They prioritise them and they make sure they happen. They take that moment to pause, review, reset, and then they go again. So here's a simple action you can take from today's episode of The Leader's Kitbag. Look at your schedule for you and your team and plan in a moment to take a pause, to reset, so you can be sure that you aren't repeating the same mistakes from the past over and over again, and to make sure you can systemize and repeat the things that are working well. That's it for today's episode of the Leader's Kitbag. So look after yourself and those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead, and until next time, lead on.
