What you can Learn from the Military on Cadence

If you have not been part of it you may not appreciate the military term of cadence. I spent 3 years in the 82^nd Airborne running 2 miles a day to the sound of a voice similar to this..

30 years later, I can still repeat most of these cadences. It forever produced a rhythmic memory that unbeknownst to myself I probably still use it to walk the dog. That cadence created more than a beat to march or run by, it created a sense of teamwork and focus that I did not realize at the time.

When we were running, we were a team; we were trying to accomplish a mission together. Did a few drop out on a 6 mile jaunt that we did on Fridays, yep! But we were a team, we worked together, we were in unison, we even knew what foot we were supposed to be putting forward. Our focus was on just one simple step at a time to accomplish our mission. If we simply did that we would reach our goal. The cadence called out by the sergeant took our mind away from what was left of our journey: Left, Right, Left, was all we needed!

When our heart beats irregular, we don’t function well. When our marketing is out of cadence, it does not function well. Irregularity screws up our body, it screws up our marketing also. Cadence is very important in any type of flow. In today’s marketing it is imperative. Consistent delivery of material, which I have written about many times, is one of the most important parts of marketing. Marketing should not be event driven, it is how strong the connections are between the events that make all the difference.

But if you are in cadence.. Teamwork and Focus becomes easy. At the end of the day without thinking about it we have accomplished something. I think that is why Kanban and Agile are so popular in Software Development and in my structure for Marketing. A Marketing Kanban set up with a client can allow virtual teams to know instantly what others are working on and even prioritize their work accordingly. It allows a much better way to manage your work in process. One step at a time…Left, Right, Left.