I was walking to get coffee the other day and noticed something that stopped me mid-step: I wasn’t picking up my feet. Not dramatically dragging them, but shuffling,small, flat steps where my feet barely cleared the ground.
My son doesn’t walk like this. He bounds. Every step has intention and lift. Somewhere along the way, I’d lost that.
Why We Start to Shuffle
I got curious and started digging into the research. What I found was fascinating,and a little unsettling.
The single muscle group most predictive of whether someone will fall is the one that lifts your toes. As we age, these muscles weaken, and our bodies compensate by shifting from an “ankle strategy” to a “hip strategy” for walking. When you’re young, most of your walking power comes from pushing off with your ankles, like a spring. As you age, your body shifts to using your hips more. It works, but it’s less efficient,shorter steps, less lift, more shuffle.
Here’s the cruel irony: shuffling feels safer, but it’s actually more dangerous. When your feet stay close to the ground, you don’t need a rug or a crack in the sidewalk to trip. The floor itself becomes the obstacle.
The research also shows we lose about 30% of our muscle mass by age 80 if we don’t actively work against it. But the hopeful part is that this decline isn’t inevitable. Muscle responds to exercise at any age,the key is that you have to keep pushing.
The Rubber Band Moment
A few days later, I was driving and “Rubber Band Man” by The Spinners came on my random Spotify playlist. And it clicked.
You can’t gain flexibility without going to the edge of your current flexibility. You can’t build strength without some level of resistance. You have to continuously move toward that edge in order to grow. The moment you stop stretching, you start losing what you had.
The Business Parallel
I think the same principle applies to organizations. Without intentionally stretching into uncomfortable territory,new markets, hard conversations, unfamiliar capabilities,companies start to shuffle. They lose the agility they once had. They take shorter steps. They play it safe in ways that feel protective but actually increase risk.
When you stop pushing toward the edge of what your business can do, you don’t stay the same. You decline. The gains you made start to erode. And just like with physical shuffling, the decline is gradual enough that you might not notice until you’re struggling to keep up.
The good news from the research is that decline isn’t inevitable,at any age, targeted effort makes a real difference. I have to believe the same is true for organizations.
What’s one area where you’ve gotten comfortable,and what would it look like to stretch again?