Cycling Thru Business - What I Learned About Technology Adoption from a Community

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and are enjoying Bike Month! This weekend was the start of the Mountain Bike World Cup season. For fans in the US it was a change from the broadcast being on RedBullTV for the past many years, to moving to GCN (Global Cycling Network). What follows is a story of how the right community can expedite technology adoption and improve performance.

A quick story about how I got into mountain biking. At a picnic at my kid’s school outside of London, I was talking about cycling with some fellow expats. We had moved to the UK a few months earlier. Cycling for me at the time was squashed between a swim and a run as I considered myself more of a triathlete. The UK road riding was challenging and beautiful, so I chose to ride my road bike more frequently. I had been a fan of professional cyling for many years, but with Eurosport coverage it became my favorite activity and sport. One of the guys in the group asked me if I had a mountain bike and wanted to join them at a place called Swinley Forest for a ride. I did have an old mountain bike and it sounded like fun, so I said yes. This opened me up to a new and different community of cyclists.

My “mountain bike” was a Mongoose Hilltopper that purchased about a decade earlier. It met the definition because of knobby tires and a flat handlebar, but had no suspension (front shock absorber) and rim brakes (see photo). And for the next few months, on pretty much every Saturday morning, in all kinds of weather, I hurled myself around Swinley and fell in love with mountain biking, as well as just falling in general! It was clear, I needed an upgrade. My new bike had two major technology upgrades: front suspension and disc brakes. I rode that bike all over Surrey and even did two cross-country rides in Norway, finishing under the huge Olympic Ski Jumps ramp in Lillehammer.

Fast forward about five years and I am back in Texas and very much a mountain biker and road cyclist more than anything. I had upgraded my road bike already, so now, of course, it was time for another mountain bike upgrade. I purchased a Salsa Spearfish with larger wheels, tubeless tires, and full suspension, while, of course, keeping with the disc brakes.

If you are not a mountain biker or cyclist, a lot of this language may be confusing. Also, did you notice that I purchased the third mountain bike in about half the time I owned the first one. Were the advantages of some of the technology choices necessary for a new bike so soon? Does this conversation sound familiar when discussing technology, especially IT systems? It does to me when initiating or upgrading CRM systems, changing platforms or websites to improve customer engagement and experience to drive revenue, or even when trying to help teams collaborate and communicate more effectively. Therefore, how can tubeless tires, disc brakes, and full suspension bikes help us in leading our teams and organizations through technology changes and implementation?

The simple truth, just like many of our system upgrades, is the newer bike made me better. If I were to record my time riding my no suspension, rim brake, tubed tires on 26” wheels Mongoose Hilltopper (which I still have and ride as a commuter) across any moderately technical trail. Then switch to my full suspension, disc brake, tubeless 29” Salsa Spearfish and ride the same trail. I will go faster with the same effort because of the technological improvements on my platform. And so would you. The opportunity and challenge we face, and even more so in the future, is how we create and continue to foster a community that supports the people in being able to optimize and grow. On my original mountain bike there were very few mechanical things I could adjust on the bike to improve its performance. Of course, I could always improve my physical ability. However, on my current bike there are over twenty adjustments I can make to change the performance of the platform. But there is a cost.

First, let me provide an overview of the mountain bike technology I have mentioned above and how I see it correlating to our business worlds.

Tubeless Tires - Getting Better Traction

It is what it sounds like. There is no longer an innertube inside the tire that you inflate. Instead, when you mount the tire, you install tire sealant that creates an airtight barrier between the tire and the wheel. The main advantages of the tubeless set up is you can run lower air pressure, which means better traction with a greater, more continuous contact patch on the trail. Another benefit is the tire sealant will fill small holes that would cause a tire with a tube to go flat. If you catch a sharp rock, a thorn, a nail, etc. as the air in the tire escapes, sealant will go with it and seal the gap. Much like you blood clots in a cut to stop the bleeding.

I have known how to change the innertube on a bicycle tire since I was in elementary school. I still fill the tire the same way, through a valve on the rim using a pump. I do not have to worry about small holes in the tire as they usually self-seal. However, when I picked up the bike I did not know how to add or change sealant. Nor did I know how to plug a larger hole in the tire that did not seal. When I needed to learn how to do this, the community is where I turned.

Disc Brakes - Much Better Control

By far the most beneficial mechanical upgrade I have ever made on a bike was going to disc brakes. By far the greatest mechanical challenges I have had on my bikes has been disc brakes.

Rim brakes were just fine for me. I have dropped down Italian mountains on my road bike easily exceeding 50 miles per hour and felt very comfortable on the simplicity of a wire and pulley braking system. However, throw in some rain, mud, sand, etc. and the confidence in rim brakes starts to fade (pun intended). My first exposure to disc brakes was my new mountain bike in the UK. Pulling on the brake levers in wet and muddy (read usual conditions in Britain) on my rim brakes meant stopping was more of a suggestion than an actual event. Disc brakes changed that. They worked well in all conditions.

The beautiful performance of disc brakes comes at a cost. Maintenance and troubleshooting disc brakes is more complicated. I view the upgrade to disc brakes as a good representation of many of the technology and process upgrades we experience and lead. Game changing performance upgrades related to a pretty basic activity - controlling the speed and stopping a bike.

The previous technology, rim brakes, is simple and the process if visible. You pull the brake lever, it pulls a cable, the cable pulls on the brake and squeezes the brake pads on the rim, you slow down. With Disc brakes, the majority of what is happening is not visible. It happens under a shroud of components, tubing, and fluid dynamics. Pulling the brake lever forces hydraulic fluid to move the pistons to push the discs against the rotor that slows you down. You might see the outcome, the pads move, but most of the process is out of sight. In addition, if something is not working, like the brake lever squeezes all the way without stopping the bike, the root cause is often contamination within the system (air bubble, contaminated fluid, or both). You cannot see the issue, but only that the outcome is not what is expected. On the rim brakes you can easily inspect and see wear and tear, but on hydraulic disc brakes, proactive maintenance is the best way to avoid failure. The greatest technical advances we make in our organizations also add complexity. How, can we help teams embrace the complexity, often with much less visibility and understanding of how the process is working, to achieve this step change in capability – and control?

Full Suspension - Capable on More Challenging Terrain

My current mountain bike is full suspension. On a full suspension bike, both the front and rear wheels have shock absorbers. This provides more traction, control, and comfort for the rider, which correlates to better performance. Where my first bike lacked suspension and thus would have less traction and control as it bounced over bumps, roots, and rocks. On my full suspension bike the shocks absorb the impact and keeps the tires closer to and, usually, on the ground. Therefore, I have maximum control across the most types of terrain.

However, with technology comes opportunity. I decided to take a “hops and drops” class one weekend. The instructors were teaching us how to properly hop over obstacles to maintain momentum and speed, as well as taking drops so the bike stayed level and fast. YouTube is full of riders going too slow, the front wheel drops, and they somersault over the bars. I wanted to avoid that scenario by getting some professional guidance.

At this time, I was a pretty capable rider. Solid intermediate. We were repeating a section for practice, and I was doing the hops and drops OK, but I was fighting the bike on the other parts of the trail. On the rooty, rocky, bumpy section at speed I was all over the place. The opposite of smooth. One of the other riders in the class riding behind me noticed my struggles. He recommended I adjust the rebound on my shock. I had ridden the bike for months and made ZERO adjustments. I knew what rebound was and could see the little turtle and rabbit icons, but never considered making any adjustments to it.

A little technical, but important definition needed. Rebound is the setting that determines how fast your suspension extends after compression. The wheel hits a bump. Some of the impact is taken up by the tire, but most is absorbed by the shock compressing. The rebound is how fast the wheel pushes back to the ground. On my bike, the rebound setting was too slow. I would hit a root, but before the shock could rebound, I would hit another root, and so on. Instead of getting the benefit of the full shock absorption, the bike was bouncing all over the place and I was fighting it. I started adjusting the setting and the improvements were dramatic, and finding the sweet spot between hitting the bumpy sections and landing softly on the drops. I had learned how to leverage the built in capabilities of the new technology to improve my performance.

I like to think about what I learned about rebound and compare it to the cadence of when metrics and indicators are reported and discussed in our organizations. Are we just riding along with the factory setting? Is that what is best for our performance? Are we still reacting to the last bump when we hit the next one? Is the community engaged and working trying to make each other better?

In addition to rebound, there are SEVEN other settings on EACH of the shocks on my full suspension bike: Shock travel for Climb, Trail, Downhill; Trail setting of Soft, Medium, and Firm; and Air Pressure (sag). Travel and Trail setting I can do while riding. Rebound I can do without tools, but have to stop. And for air pressure (sag) I need a special shock absorber pump. A little overwhelming, but the bike and suspension engineers have given me the tools that are able to tackle a huge variety of terrain with the intention of keeping the bike underneath me and in control. This adds complexity, but also provide opportunity.

On a daily basis, technology is both making us more effective and faster, but at the same time we can experience it beating us up. Just like I was bouncing all over the place because I was not leveraging the tool that was part of the shock system, the rebound, many of us are letting our focus and attention bounce all over the place due to system reports, email, and random notifications, etc. Are we still using the factory settings?

The Leadership Challenge - Cultivating the Community for Adoption

I described three technological advantages that have dramatically improved mountain biking for me, and many others involved in the sport. Individually they are fantastic and when combined on the same platform, the impact is magnified.

What I find with this additional complexity is that the community surrounding the adoption or change is a key success factor. And this is something we can influence. The vast majority of what I have learned regarding the technology implemented on my mountain bike has been from the community: my close riding friends, other riders like the one in the training class, virtual experts via YouTube, and experts.

Take a community or team you probably have experienced in your career. It defines the best as one person or team being better than another. Sometime the competitive spirit is applied out of context. The challenge we face in this community is that its members may struggle with adopting something new, since it comes with the perception of high risk to the status quo.

In contrast, and related to my experience with my mountain bike upgrades, this community views the best as a person or team doing their best. Yes, there is still competition within the community, but it gets put in the right context, such as focused on races or other finite events. Members of this community will be more open to something new because they believe the knowledge within the community, augmented with outside experts at times, will help them achieve improved performance and a better experience.

We can have a community of talented, competitive, successful people that can adopt and adapt to new technology and ways of working. We can lead, influence, and cultivate a community that best supports achieving those objectives.

Speaking of technology, do you have a cycling computer, such as a Garmin? Have you ever counted how many different data points you can record and display? Next post I will share how the greatest piece of bike equipment I have ever purchased did absolutely nothing to improve my performance.

How it started

How it is going.

I also want to share that I am raising money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) by participating in America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride with Team In Training. On June 4th I will ride around Lake Tahoe with hundreds of other fundraisers supporting the important work of LLS in fighting blood cancer and supporting the patients and families impacted by this diagnosis. If you are able, please consider a donation on my fundraising page:

https://pages.lls.org/tnt/txg/ambbr23/BMerrill