One of the biggest goals for any group or person is to achieve the next level, whether by winning championships, creating business, or making social changes in a community. However, reaching the proper notoriety is not an easy task, and this may be due to many variables such as personalities, capabilities, skills, challenges, and contexts.

We may sometimes have heard the expression “we will need an extra mile on this” or “are we willing to run the extra mile in here?”; that kind of question can surface when dealing with a significant challenge, and just delivering will be insufficient. So, What does getting to this stage mean?.

An “extra of you.”

To start, maybe it is accurate to say that we’re programmed at some point to deliver tasks, whether in personal matters or jobs. So, naturally, we respond to instructions and follow a set of actions to accomplish what is intended.

Going beyond the resolution of a task, we can find the difference between expected and extraordinary.

To put this in a situation, let’s imagine something simple as making your bed; It will be appropriate to clean, shake and spread the bed sheets to make it look clean and comfortable. With all actions done, we can feel satisfied with the accomplished duty. But can we go further than that? What if we make our bed and reorganize the whole room, then the next room, and so on. If the initial challenge was to make the bed, taking care of the entire house will provide greater satisfaction, and eventually, people or even yourself will appreciate the effort.

Detecting improving opportunities beyond a given result and getting them done is a hidden value that broadens existing possibilities into something bigger and good.

The extra mile in teams

This notoriety is not a one-sided outcome; In fact, I think it is a multidisciplinary issue. Succeeding as a group results from external factors like the company purpose, the type of business we’re dealing with, the work environment, colleagues, and even daily challenges.

To achieve this stage in UX teams, a good leader is the first piece you need to find to put together the puzzle. I know this may be a cliche, but the reality is that a person with a spirit of progression, empathy in many aspects, and experience is needed. In addition, a good leader can identify and develop skills within the group to eventually go further than they think they can. Consequently, a team self-discover will lead the group to a continuous innovation momentum and create a creativity infection.

Leadership is an ongoing iteration of the leader and the team in the pursuit of goals.

I’ve identified some levels of actions that eventually may influence getting the extra mile in a team. The X marks the treasure:

At an individual level: a self-questioning

Role expectations (company goals vs. development goals)

To have a strong beginning, we need to understand our company’s direction and expectations regarding our role and growth. What’s expected from your work? This question is critical to solving once we start a new position, and then, knowing my boundaries, I can identify where to start creating opportunities to generate incredible value.

Suppose we detect a great chance to improve communications with other departments. In that case, we should start creating some strategies to fill that gap and make our solutions and ideas more effective.

Personal expectations

It is essential to envision inner goals to create a sense of orientation and coherence with individual achievements. Where do I see myself in the future? This question will trigger you not to forget what matters: dreams, life plans, personal roadmap, career path, personal growth, and so forth. Am I consequent with my life bucket list? Am I growing as a professional? Remember these as a lifesaver once you feel trapped in an endless work routine.

Profile vs. skills

knowing your role and personal aspirations, the next thing to do is embrace and understand your profile and what you can do within the company (soft and hard skills); Where is my action zone? Am I willing to create value beyond duty? We all own a “kingdom” built from our capabilities, and it belongs to us; this place is where we move freely between what I meant to do and what we actually can do. If we want to expand that kingdom, we must conquer new territories by grabbing new habilities beyond expected.

At a Group-level: what’s the mission?

One unit, one goal

Not all group members have to be the same, and diversity can be a good thing. However, having different profiles trying to solve the same problem will reveal how many approaches we can have once we think of a solution. Above this, what matters as a team is to understand the goal to achieve thoroughly. The path can vary, but the plan will remain. Not having a common goal only will create misunderstanding among the team members; at this point, it will be tough to even think about overperforming. Team members will be pursuing different goals.

It is all about brotherhood.

Once we established a functional unit, problems and difficulties can come anytime now. Work routine, resignations, and miss planning are the greatest villains that always will threaten our group environment. I’m very much into the military code “no man is left behind,” and the reasoning of this is simple: no matter how much struggle a partner is immersed in, we have to be able to cover him and keep moving forward. This action will allow the group to recover from external and internal conflicts and not get distracted from the primary goal.

Freedom

Recovering from difficulties is crucial. When we are not dealing with issues, it is essential to start moving freely; what does this mean? First, feeling the autonomy of making decisions in your field or duties will detonate the capacity to imagine and explore. Here, we can broaden our ideas into something big and maybe never seen by others. But, on the other hand, not having this freedom will segment our vision on decisions, and probably, we will never be able to see the big picture of things.

At a Company-level: Maturity matters

In regards to UX teams, this stage is necessary. A status of maturity can define how your efforts and new ideas can echo in all company members.

According to Jacob Nielsen, six levels of maturity can identify the understanding of UX and the penetration of user’s decision-based ideas.

Maybe, starting from here, it is essential to identify how mature is the company or project you’re working on.

Common ground

Once we know the UX level of maturity in the environment around us, sharing a vision, goals, or problematics is next. The idea here is to recognize the same situation as a foundation to start to build up.

Without a global understanding of challenges, it will make us spend extra energy arguing with others’ points of view, and maybe, this may be a dead end. Common ground and UX

Enhanced UX language

Depending on the UX maturity, this level will be shaped by how we talk strategically about users’ experiences, whether if UX is a new language for the company or something deeply assimilated that flows.

Ux enhanced language is the profound interpretation of the needs of an industry or project to raise strategic conversations using the same language, for instance, talking about numbers in a quantitative environment or values ​​if we face different understandings of the human being. It should be universal, multi-functional, and capture all the singularities of the industry where it takes action. I see it as a mother system that connects the user’s voice with companies, and we can translate that into goals; how fascinating.

Ground troops and air coverage

This level is idyllic where all company works like a big unit. Ideas coming from anywhere are encouraged to come true. This maturity occurs when senior executives endorse ideas that come from lower levels, so creativity and proposing become part of the job. In the book: creative confidence, Jeremy Utley refers to this level as the maximum evolution of a culture of innovation in companies.

When new ideas and approaches give the company identity, getting the extra mile would be joyful to pursuit.

What’s next?

The extra mile is not an “extra” task; instead, I believe it is the other spirit you put in to be better and make a difference. It is the momentum to see beyond your capabilities and even knowing limitations; you take the bravery to accomplish what exceeds you.

This stage is achievable, but do you feel complete? Maybe this is only the beginning of a more extensive pursuit of a more significant mile. How to keep growing? Limits are within you, and you decide how great you want to be next time.