9 ways Lean is like Hiking

How I learned that high performance in business is like high performance on challenging trails.

A big optimistic goal

In 2014, my wife suggested: “Let’s vacation in the Southwest, do day hikes, and stay in lodges overnight.” She pitched Grand Canyon, Zion Canyon, and Bryce Canyon. I agreed and we happily planned 6 ambitious days of hiking in those National Parks. In the weeks ahead of our trip, I did a bit of training on my elliptical machine to “get in shape.” Little did I know! We set off in October 2014 with high hopes. 1st stop: Zion National Park.

Attempting “High” performance brings problems to the surface

A few hours into our first hike, my left knee started to hurt. By lunch, I was pretty tired and had also developed multiple blisters on my feet. The next morning I could hardly move. It took an hour or two to overcome the stiffness. But I needed that time to tape up my feet. With knee pain, foot pain, exhaustion, and some digestive issues, I stopped having fun around mid-day. The scenery was spectacular, and we managed an 8 mile 2,100 ft climb to Observation Point which we thought was a great achievement. But my 57 year-old body needed to be in much better condition to really enjoy it.

At Bryce, we were sore and tired enough that we changed from hiking to horse-back riding and at the Grand Canyon, all I could do was shuffle along the rim trail and peer down to where we REALLY wanted to be.


We loved the terrain and scenery enough in the Southwest that we decided to go back in 2016. A do-over! I resolved that I would get in good enough condition for 6 days of challenging day-hikes.

Fixing my problems: more, harder, and weirder than I imagined

The first step was to overcome “Patellar Tendonitis” in my left knee. This involved unusual exercises over a long period. Tendons strengthen much slower than muscles. The knee exercises were boring and didn’t FEEL like they were getting me anywhere. But I had to fix my knee problem before I could do longer workouts and improve my aerobic condition. (Some of the things you do in Lean are like that.)

I weighed about 205 at the time. It took more than a diet to fix that. It required a change in my whole approach to nutrition, a substantial attack on my laziness and gluttony, and about a year of perseverance to get down to 165–much closer to a healthy weight for my slender frame. (More Lean application here!)

Then there were my shoes. I discovered I had been buying too-small shoes my whole life! I learned that for successful hiking, you need plenty of room in the “toe box.” I also had to overcome my (false) belief that hiking always requires heavy hiking boots with plenty of “ankle support.” It took experimenting over few years, but I ditched my size 9 hiking boots and now use size 11 “trail runners.” My blister problems all but disappeared and I carry a lot less weight on my feet.

I studied books on endurance training and learned that establishing a “strong aerobic base” is the key to all-day stamina. I was training to go long, not fast. It required a little interval training, but mostly long sessions of moderate intensity, keeping heart-rate at a specific target. Again, sometimes it didn’t feel like I was making progress. I had to abandon my “push-as-hard-as-you-can-every-workout” thinking and adopt long-term scientific thinking.

There were other patterns of thinking and behavior I had to change. Although I now generally follow a low-carb nutrition approach, I learned (the hard way!) to take high-carb snacks on hike days to keep up my energy. I also discovered that my sweat is saltier than normal and I must deliberately intake salt on hot days to avoid “hyponatremia.” Finally, I tend to be an over-packer and have had to discipline myself to only take the essentials.

Some encouraging improvement

I’m no endurance athlete, but when we returned to the Southwest in 2016, we were able to enjoy 6 days of significant hikes with FAR fewer problems and pains. In Zion, we repeated the Observation Point climb, finishing by 1pm (see photo below) and felt as though we hadn’t even gotten a full workout. We did another 6 mile hike in the afternoon, just to get our money’s worth.

A clear goal to guide my training

I adopted a “challenge statement” to keep me on track for my nutrition and workouts: “Strenuous day hikes through spectacular scenery.” My goal is to experience the glories of God’s creation that you can’t get to in a car. We’ve enjoyed some magnificent sights since then, including this one from the Grand Canyon in 2018. No Photoshop! Fittingly, this spot is called “Ooo-Ahh Point.”

High performance is the same everywhere

During these years of training to hike, I’ve also been coaching leaders to adopt the Lean Business culture. I gradually began to see similarities. Attaining high performance in hiking and high performance in business have a lot in common. Here’s a list of 9 ways Lean is like Hiking:

  • In both hiking and business, the enemy to overcome is the fallen condition resulting from Adam and Eve’s sin. The world around us is fallen and flawed. The people around us are fallen and flawed. MY body, soul, and brain are fallen and flawed. This is what we battle.
  • In both hiking and business, if we do nothing, we decline. It takes WORK just to MAINTIAN performance.
  • In both hiking and business, we only make progress if we learn AND apply learning.
  • In both hiking and business, we must exercise discipline and self-control (rather than laziness) to improve performance.
  • In both hiking and business, we must turn new behaviors into “lifestyle” habits to retain and continue our progress.
  • In both hiking and business, significant performance improvement takes longer than weeks and months.
  • In both hiking and business, we will face unexpected, “weird” problems that we must overcome to make progress.
  • In both hiking and business, we must exercise objective, scientific thinking instead of notions, biases, and pride.
  • In both hiking and business, we use data to track progress and see problems. What is my calories in/out deficit each day? What does the deficit NEED to be to lose a pound a week? How much work can my body do at a given heart-rate? Is that number improving? If not, what should I change so it does?
    In business, how much production SHOULD we get done and how much DO we get done? If there’s a gap, what problems cause it? Which ones should we work on first?

Spectacular business results?

I think you get the idea. Improving a business is like training for an endurance activity. The kind of success Christians hope for in business is rather spectacular: happy customers, fulfilled workers, and a healthy company. This achievement is far more enduring than the view on a hike. The double rainbow in the photo above was extraordinary and glorious, but it faded in 15 minutes. A company that achieves the triple win I just mentioned is likely to enjoy it for YEARS.

And that Glorifies God.