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Written by Client Director and Consultant Felix Bramley, Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?.
Three months ago, I left EY to join Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?.
It felt risky to leave an organisation of 400,000 people for a 21-person company, but I’d heard good things about Will It? from people I respect. Some had worked for the organisation, others were clients. They all spoke of an organisation with a genuine commitment to high performance.
Will It? was founded on the back of a rowing team that went from finishing seventh in 1998 to winning gold in 2000. It’s a genuinely fascinating story that translates practical tools for performance from the world of sport into business.
Having heard a lot about the organisation, read the book and gone through a 4-stage interview process – I had a good idea of what to expect when I joined. Yet 3 months in, I’m still surprised by how deeply ingrained the performance principles that helped Ben and his team to win gold are in Will It?’s culture – and that of our clients.
It’s not about the story – it’s about what people do with the story
During my first month I shadowed a variety of client workshops. Consistently, I saw leaders and teams elevate collective performance by applying those same three principles:
- Focus on what’s most important
- Focus on performance to achieve results
- Work together effectively
The breakthrough moment came at different times in each workshop, but more often than not, it related to at least one of the principles. For one group it came after a tough conversation when the SLT uncovered a fundamental need to align their strategy more fully to patient outcomes, engaging the rest of the organisation on a deeper level. For another, it was when the Exec Team realised that the curiosity of their management population held the key to cross-functional collaboration.
As I met more colleagues and joined more meetings, I realised that the three performance principles are also fundamental to how Will It? operates internally. For example, we routinely hold performance reviews at the end of key meetings and there’s a standing Thursday morning call where everyone in the company shares successes from the past week.
Simple habits like this focus people on what makes a difference, share learning across the organisation and build belief in the power of the team – all in service our goal.
The performance principles also guide decisions about how we approach client delivery, develop propositions, and manage internal projects. If something’s not making the boat go faster, we stop doing it. There’s a ruthless prioritisation that helps us to manage capacity, without diminishing impact.
And it works - you can see it in the results
On my first day, I met a Managing Director who had brought Will It? with him from a previous organisation. He talked about the clarity of Will It?, the power of aligning behind a Crazy Goal and our facilitators’ ability to turn ambition into something tangible that people can act on.
I’ve witnessed this first-hand and I’m still genuinely taken aback by the volume and quality of feedback we receive from clients. At least once a day a Slack notification pops-up with an NPS score out of 10 and a quote. In my first week, there were seven 10s and three 9s – mostly from CEOs and CPOs. One of the reviews, read:
Seeing the impact of organisations applying our performance principles has prompted me to explore how we can broaden the reach of those principles to build more high-performance cultures.
What this means for building performance cultures
- Principles only matter if they’re operationalised
Culture isn’t built through messaging – it’s built through habits, rhythms and reinforcement. What habits, behaviours or rhythms reinforce the culture that you want? Which ones unintentionally undermine it? - Consistency beats complexity
The power of our high performance principles lies in disciplined application when different challenges and opportunities arise. When are your teams and leaders focusing on what’s most important, performance and working together effectively? When are they not? - Internal culture and client impact are directly linked
You can’t sustainably foster high performance in others if you don’t visibly practice what you preach. What rhythms (reviews, standups, retrospectives, onboarding, coaching) could become stronger cultural anchors for you?
If you’re thinking about how to build a high performance culture that actually translates into results – I’d love to connect.
