The Physics of Teamwork: What Does It Mean to Be in Motion?

Pillar4-Empowering Teams category.

In his book The Trouble with Gravity, science writer Richard Panek reflects on how historical giants like Galileo and Isaac Newton cracked the mysteries of the universe. They didn't start with complex math or immediate causes. Instead, they stripped away the distractions and asked a far more fundamental question: "What does to be in motion even mean?".

It is a profound question for physicists, but it is equally vital for business leaders—especially those navigating the complexities of industrial growth.

When you run a growing company, your team is undoubtedly busy. Phones are ringing, materials are moving, and fires are being put out. But there is a massive difference between being busy and being in motion.

As leadership expert John C. Maxwell points out, "Activity is not necessarily accomplishment". True motion isn't just about spinning wheels or logging hours; it is about momentum directed toward a unified goal. As defined in Eliyahu Goldratt’s classic business novel The Goal, an action is only truly productive if it brings the company closer to its ultimate goal of making money.

If your team is exhausted but your margins are still shrinking, you aren't in motion. You are just standing still, loudly.

The Law of the Big Mo Why is being in motion so critical for empowering a team? Because motion creates momentum, and momentum is a leader's best friend.

When an organization lacks momentum, even the simplest tasks feel like insurmountable obstacles, and morale plummets. But when a team is in motion, something magical happens. Success becomes exaggerated. Minor problems work themselves out, and the team feels like a train moving at sixty miles per hour—capable of plowing through concrete walls.

Most importantly, momentum elevates your people. When an organization is truly in motion, even average employees are inspired to perform far above average.

How to Keep Your Team in Motion Isaac Newton’s foundational principle of physics states: Matter in motion will remain in motion unless stopped.

In business, your team naturally wants to move forward, achieve results, and be part of a winning culture. Yet, leaders often act as the very friction that stops them. We halt their progress by micromanaging, demanding perfect certainty before making a decision, or failing to provide a clear destination.

Andrew Stanton, a visionary director at Pixar, likens leadership to a ship captain in the middle of the ocean. The leader’s job is to point and say, "Land is that way". Even if the direction is slightly off, the act of moving forward gives the crew purpose. If, instead, the leader says, "I’m still not sure... all of you stop rowing until I figure this out," weeks go by, morale dies, and failure becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You can always correct your course along the way, but you cannot steer a ship that isn't moving. Getting started is a struggle, but once you are moving forward, a subtle shift in weight is all it takes to make a turn.

The Strategy To empower your team to generate the ideas that drive performance, you must ruthlessly protect their motion:

1. Point to the Horizon: Give your team a clear, measurable goal. Do not give them a flawless map; just give them the destination and the authority to figure out the route.
2. Stop Turning Off the Engine: Perfectionism kills momentum. Allow your people to execute without waiting for your approval on every minor detail.
3. Remove the Friction: Your job is to clear the roadblocks (bureaucracy, unclear roles, conflicting priorities) that force your team to "stop rowing."

Don't just keep your team busy this week. Keep them in motion.

Let's get to work and start building those margins.

— Philip Uglow, Founder, Margin Builders

References

• Catmull, E., & Wallace, A. (2014). Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the unseen forces that stand in the way of true inspiration. Random House. (Reference for the Pixar/Andrew Stanton "ship captain" analogy).

• Goldratt, E. M., & Cox, J. (2004). The Goal: A process of ongoing improvement (3rd rev. ed.). North River Press. (Reference for the concept that an action is only productive if it moves the company toward its goal).
• Maxwell, J. C. (2007). The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership: Follow them and people will follow you (10th anniversary ed.). Thomas Nelson. (Reference for Chapter 16: "The Law of the Big Mo" and the train/waterskiing momentum analogies, as well as the quote "Activity is not necessarily accomplishment").
• Panek, R. (2019). The trouble with gravity: Solving the mystery beneath our feet. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. (Reference for the foundational question of Galileo and Newton: "What does to be in motion even mean?").