Most sports require teams. And one thing teams absolutely require is effective collaboration and communication.
Let me take my favorite sport—track and field—and one of my favorite events: the 4×100 or 4×400 meter relay. (Honestly, pick any relay. The principle holds.)
Your leg of the race means nothing if you fumble the handoff.
If you drop the baton.
If you aren’t in the exchange zone at the right time.
You could run the fastest split of the entire field and still lose the race because the baton didn’t transfer smoothly.
That’s collaboration.
And the same thing happens on teams—especially innovative teams where ideas are being exchanged, expanded, and improved upon. You can receive an idea from a colleague, build on it, strengthen it, and together win the race. But if someone never passes the baton—never shares the update, never signals completion—it’s as if that leg of the race was never run at all.
That’s why I teach leaders and teams to work out loud.
Not to shout.
Not to boast.
But to communicate clearly and intentionally.
And I use a simple three-step formula.
1️⃣ Say What You’re Going to Do
Before the baton moves, runners know the plan.
They know the order.
They know the marks.
They know who is coming and when.
In teams, this looks like clarity of commitment:
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“I’ll draft the proposal by Thursday.”
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“I’ll analyze the data set and send insights before the meeting.”
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“I’ll reach out to the client and report back.”
When you say what you’re going to do, you reduce ambiguity. You give your teammates something to anticipate. You create alignment.
Without this step, everyone is guessing.
And guessing slows teams down.
2️⃣ Do What You Said You’d Do
This is execution. This is discipline.
In a relay, your teammate is trusting that you will arrive at full speed, in the right lane, inside the exchange zone.
In organizations, trust is built the same way—through consistency.
When you follow through:
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You build reliability.
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You strengthen credibility.
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You accelerate innovation.
Because when teammates know you execute, they can focus on their own leg of the race instead of checking whether you ran yours.
3️⃣ Say That You Did What You Said
This is the step most people skip.
And it is often the biggest challenge.
You assume they “know.”
You assume they “saw it.”
You assume the work “speaks for itself.”
But in virtual and hybrid environments, that assumption is dangerous.
Imagine running a relay where everyone is blindfolded. You don’t know when your teammate is approaching. You don’t know when to extend your hand.
That’s why relay runners yell “Stick!”
It’s a signal.
It tells the next runner:
Reach back. The baton is here.
On teams, step three sounds like:
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“The proposal is complete and uploaded.”
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“The data analysis is in your inbox.”
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“The client call is finished; here are the next steps.”
This isn’t bragging.
It’s enabling.
When you say you’ve completed the work, you release your teammate to begin theirs. You keep momentum alive. You protect innovation from stalling in silence.
How Working Out Loud Builds Trust
Trust isn’t built in grand gestures. It’s built in predictable exchanges.
When you consistently:
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State your intention,
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Follow through, and
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Communicate completion,
you create psychological safety and operational clarity.
Your teammates don’t have to wonder:
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“Is it done?”
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“Did they forget?”
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“Should I follow up?”
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“Am I waiting on something?”
That cognitive load disappears.
And when cognitive load decreases, creativity increases.
Innovation thrives on smooth baton passes.
Don’t Drop the Baton
Poor collaboration stifles innovation.
An idea unshared is like a leg never run.
Work uncommunicated is like a baton never passed.
And it’s not just the Olympics that require disciplined exchanges.
It’s your team.
It’s your department.
It’s your organization.
So the next time you commit to something, remember the relay:
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Say what you’re going to do.
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Do what you said.
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Say that you did it.
Work out loud.
Because winning teams don’t just run fast.
They pass the baton well.
