The Last 8%

Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud

Sep 10, 2025

** I will have some exciting news to share shortly. A nasty little tease, I know. Forgive me. Patience, my parents have told me, is a virtue. **

In the meantime, I wanted to share a story that crossed my path recently and got me thinking. How much of success is rooted in effective communication?

Every sport has coaches — and often an entire organizational infrastructure — built around its players. In sports, unlike in business, we can see communication play out before us. Cameras flash to the moments of highest intensity, the dramatic tension, when emotional arguments spill forth on the sidelines or in the dugouts.

What appears to be a breakdown in communication might, given the right environment, be healthy — and even beneficial.

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review by an Olympic performance coach JP Pawliw highlights what he feels is becoming a barrier to team success, both on the field and in the boardroom:

An inability or unwillingness to have tough conversations.

Pawliw’s team surveyed 34,000 workers about risks they encounter in the normal course of fulfilling their job. They identified a notable gap between the risks they do take and the ones they feel they should. The results showed, for example, that people leave out or avoid approximately 7.56% of what they want to say in a difficult work conversation.

In other words, they will share ~92% of their feelings, but when they get to the more challenging parts, they will back down from having the full discussion.

Pawliw calls this retreat the fundamental conflict of performance. Risk-taking goes against our biology, which rewards self-preservation. But successful organizations have risk-takers that fulfill that last 8% and complete those sometimes-tough assessments. It’s vital to the ability to outmaneuver competitors and shake up the status quo. Think Billy Beane and the “Moneyball” Oakland As.

Pawliw identifies the characteristics of organizations that foster this type of risk-taking — and those that don’t. I thought the results were illuminating for a broad number of domains, both within sports and beyond.

The Last 8% Culture Map. To determine whether your company culture encourages employees to take risks, dubbed a “last 8% culture,” consider what combination of courage and connection it typically has. A 2 by 2 matrix shows four examples of common cultures based on degree of courage and connection. Companies with high connection but low courage have a family culture. This culture is “nice,” but people are unwilling to do hard things. Traits include avoidance, mediocre standards, unclear and inconsistent accountability, slow decision-making, and not wanting to upset others. Companies with low connection and high courage have a transactional culture: short-term results are prioritized over relationships. Traits include unskilled courage, a “blame others/ make a mess” environment, a toleration of bad behaviors, high anxiety, and high burnout. Companies with low connection and low courage have a fear-based culture that is inconsistent and unpredictable. Traits are low trust and belonging, a default to protection as opposed to risk, walking on eggshells, and a fear of speaking up due to the consequences. But a last 8% culture, where both connection and courage are high, enables high accountability and high care. Traits include high trust and smart risk-taking, a feedback-rich environment, a balance of results and relationships, and high experimentation and innovation. Source: The Institute for Health and Human Potential. — Credit: Harvard Business Review

Pawliw said that the largest percentage of respondents to his surveys identified as belonging to teams with a “family culture,” which on the surface sounds enviable. Indeed, many teams strive to create a “family culture” — and it would seem more beneficial to cultivating risk-taking than a “fear-based culture.”

But in a family culture, Pawliw suggests, people may “sugarcoat communication,” breeding resistance to making touch decisions or pointing out “inconvenient truths.” That still leaves the last 8% void unfilled and may be responsible for struggles to reach a team’s true potential.

Alternatively, in a “transactional culture,” there is more risk-taking among employees, but the benefits aren’t generally sustainable. Managers may not be afraid to hold back on going the full 100% with their feedback, but the team culture isn’t there as support, creating a situation more susceptible to employee burn out and withdrawal.

“The last 8% culture” is, as you might expect, a healthy mix of “both high culture and high connection.” The environment is “feedback-rich,” which enables people to take risks, but accountability is delivered “with high care.” It is a culture that fosters innovation because employees know where they stand. The drive for results is counterbalanced by deep concern about relationships.

It’s food for thought as we continue our journey trying to understand some of the hidden “it” factors underlying skill, performance, and success in any domain.

I hope, whatever you are doing, you feel emboldened to go the last 8% and supported in whatever comes from it.

‘Til next time,

Zach

Links

Is marathon running linked to colon cancer? … Gatorade: We want to see women sweat … The performance benefits from spitting … MLB players return from injury faster if their contract is expiring … What sports rivalries can tell us about motivation … The latest nutrition fad in cycling: broccoli juice … First of its kind project to investigate the impact of sleep on peak performance in female athletes … College football’s $1 million strength coach … The world’s first robot games were a clumsy mess

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