Everyday Run State: Pro Edition

For the past two weeks I’ve been in beautiful Fernie, British Columbia, and on a last-minute whim, decided to go fly fishing. In October. Which, it turns out, is not the season.

Our guide, who thought his season was over, loaded my husband and I into a drift boat with oars, no motor, and two people who had never held a fly rod in their lives. He taught us everything from scratch - how to cast, how to read the water, and how to untangle ourselves (which happened a lot).

Halfway through, a storm rolled in over the mountains. We (a.k.a. the Guide) ended up rowing hard to outrace it down the Elk River - soaked, freezing, and laughing. After drying out and once the sun came up, I caught my first fish and felt like I’d conquered the world.

It wasn’t graceful, but it was a reminder of how good it feels to be bad at something.

The Beginner’s Phase in Business

In Lean and Agile frameworks, there’s a concept called Shu-Ha-Ri, the three stages of learning and mastery:

• Shu (Obey): You learn the form. You follow the process exactly.

• Ha (Detach): You start to adapt and question the process.

• Ri (Transcend): You’ve internalized the principles and can innovate freely.

In many MSPs and Pro AV teams, most people get stuck somewhere between Shu and Ha. They follow checklists and SOPs because it’s safe - or they reinvent processes entirely without understanding why they existed in the first place.

The sweet spot is understanding where your team is in that journey and designing systems that help them grow, not stay stuck.

Why the Shu Phase Matters

Early in process improvement work, teams are often frustrated that they “have to follow the rules.” But Shu is critical. It builds muscle memory, consistency, and shared understanding.

You can’t innovate from nothing. You earn the right to adapt (Ha) by first understanding why the standard exists (Shu).

When I’m consulting, I see this play out all the time: a team that’s never had structure wants automation, dashboards, and AI. But until the basics are learned and practiced (the Shu phase) those higher-level tools just add noise.

Mastery doesn’t skip steps.

How to Help Your Team Through Shu

Here’s how leaders can make the “beginner” phase something worth leaning into:

1. Clarify the “why.” People follow processes when they understand their purpose, not just the rule.

2. Build repetition before automation. Make sure the manual version works reliably before adding tech.

3. Encourage safe experimentation. Let the team suggest small changes once they’ve mastered the baseline.

4. Celebrate progress, not perfection. The goal of Shu isn’t compliance - it’s competence.

5. Coach curiosity. Replace “Did you follow the steps?” with “What did you notice?”

From Shu to Flow

Fly fishing reminded me how it feels to be completely out of my depth - awkward, slow, and deeply focused. That same energy is what teams need when they’re building new habits or systems.

There’s no shortcut to mastery. Whether you’re learning to cast a line or streamline your service delivery, the Shu phase is where discipline turns into intuition - and where ego gets replaced by curiosity.

If you can help your team stay in that space a little longer, you’ll build something far more sustainable than “quick fixes” or flashy tools.