Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?

In 2000, the British men's eight won Olympic gold in Sydney, the first British crew to win that event since 1912. One of the rowers, Ben Hunt-Davis, later wrote about how the team got there in a book co-written with performance coach Harriet Beveridge, titled Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?

The title is also the method. Before the crew made a decision about training, equipment, routine, or anything else, they asked a single question. Will it make the boat go faster? If the answer was yes, they did it. If the answer was no, they dropped it, however sensible or fashionable or well-intentioned the idea happened to be.

It sounds almost too simple to be useful. But applied with discipline, it is a demanding filter, and it has a lot to offer any business owner who feels pulled in too many directions.

Why a Simple Question Is So Hard to Live By

Most businesses do not suffer from a shortage of ideas. They suffer from an excess of them. A new software tool promises to save time. A competitor launches a new service, so it feels like you should too. A trade show, a networking group, a redesign, a loyalty program, a new location. Each of these can be defended with a reasonable argument, and many of them would help someone.

The difficulty is that "this is a good idea" and "this will move us toward what we are trying to achieve" are not the same statement. An idea can be good in theory and still do nothing for your boat. Worse, it can slow the boat, by absorbing time, money, and attention that would have gone somewhere more useful.

What made the rowing crew's approach powerful was not that it generated clever ideas. It was that it was willing to turn down good ones.

First, Decide What "Faster" Means for You

The question only works if you know what the boat is trying to do. In rowing the answer is clear, because the goal is to cover the course in less time. In business, "faster" can mean many things, and a lot of owners have never pinned it down.

For one owner it might mean higher profit. For another it might mean better margins, stronger cash flow, or customers who stay longer and spend more. For another it might mean a business that can run for a month without them. These are all legitimate goals, but they are not the same goal, and a decision that helps one may do nothing for another.

So, the first step is to choose. What is the one thing that you most want to improve over the next year? Write it down in a sentence. That becomes your definition of speed, and every decision gets measured against it.

Running the Test

Once the goal is clear, the question becomes easy to apply. Take any decision, large or small, and ask whether it will move that specific measure.

Say your goal this year is to improve margins. A new product line might bring in more revenue, but will it improve margins, or will it add complexity, inventory, and training that drag them down? A discount to win a big customer might fill the calendar, but does it make the boat go faster, or does it lock in lower profit on every future job?

Say your goal is customer retention. A new marketing campaign might attract more leads, but would the same effort spent on the customers you already have do more to move the number you care about?

Say your goal is to reduce your own involvement. Taking on a high-profile project that only you can deliver might look attractive, but it works against the very thing you are aiming for.

In each case, the question does not ask whether the idea is good. It asks whether the idea is good for the goal. That small shift cuts through a lot of noise.

The Parts That Do Not Pass but Still Matter

It is worth being careful here. Not everything that fails the test should be dropped. Insurance, compliance, safety, tax filings, and looking after your health do not make a boat go faster in any direct sense, but without them the boat sinks or the crew cannot race.

A useful way to handle this is to sort activities into three groups. Some things drive speed directly. Some things keep the boat afloat and have to be done, ideally as efficiently as possible. And some things do neither. The third group is where the opportunity lies, and it is usually larger than owners expect.

A Practical Exercise

Try this over a week or two. List the main ways you spend your time, your team's time, and your money. Marketing activities, recurring meetings, subscriptions, services you offer, customers you serve, reports you produce, projects underway.

Beside each item, write one of three answers. Yes, it clearly helps the goal. No, it does not. Or not sure.

The yes items deserve more attention and investment. The no items are candidates to stop, shrink, or hand off. The not sure items are worth a short test, perhaps tracking the result for a few months to see whether they earn their place.

Many owners are surprised by what they find. A meeting that has run for years without a clear purpose. A service that takes a lot of effort and brings little profit. A subscription nobody remembers signing up for. A customer segment that consumes far more energy than it returns. None of these are a crisis, but together they act like drag on the boat.

Why the Hard Part Is Emotional

Stopping something is rarely just a business decision. It means stopping things that someone built, that a long-standing customer values, or that we personally enjoy. There can be pride, habit, and a fear of missing out in the mix.

That is natural, and it is why a clear test helps. It gives you a calm, neutral reason to say no, and a way to explain it to others. We are not stopping this because it is bad. We are stopping it because it does not help us do what we have decided matters most right now.

It also works in the other direction. A clear goal makes it easier to say yes, with confidence, to the things that fit.

Revisit the Question Regularly

Goals change. A business that is working on margins this year might shift to growth next year or to preparing for a sale in a few years. When the goal changes, the answers change too. An activity that passed last year may no longer earn its place, and something that was off the table may suddenly make sense.

Build the habit of asking the question at the start of each quarter, and whenever a significant new opportunity appears. It takes minutes, and it keeps the business pointed in the right direction.

The Takeaway

Most owners are already working hard. The opportunity is not necessarily to work harder, but to be more deliberate about where the effort goes. Choose what "faster" means for your business, hold every decision up against it, and be willing to let go of good ideas that do not serve it.

A rowing crew has a clear finish line, and it is easy to see how focus helps. A business has fewer obvious signals, which makes discipline even more valuable. The next time a promising idea lands on your desk, try asking the question the crew asked before every choice. Will it make the boat go faster?