“It’s a mental thing.”
“It’s 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration.”
“It’s all about goal-setting.”
We all discuss it from time to time... what enables some sports organisations to outperform their peers? What is the key to their success?
If we care, if we’re not content for ourselves and our organisations to cruise at less than their potential, we move beyond the trite slogans. We leave our comfort zone behind and take action. And we discover that winners are made, not born...
”1000 little things done well”
There is not a quick-fire formula ... a peak performing organisation is one that, in the words of the late Sir Peter Blake, does “1000 little things well”.
We hear a lot about the performance of athletes, but what about the performance of the organisations who are responsible for them?
A revolution has transformed sport over the past decade.
Those who manage sport today find themselves in a high stakes business. They are at the centre of a complex web of interested parties – players and spectators of course, but also sponsors, agents, media, government (local and central). There are also two very different income streams to attract and manage from the public (taxpayer) sector and from the private sector.
Expectation and responsibility go with the territory. High performance is expected as much off the field as on. At every level inside a sport, efficiency and a quality service is demanded. There is no room for mediocrity and excellence must never be compromised. A sports organisation must be organised if it is to succeed and thrive. For sport’s complex web is likely to become more complex in the future.
And to succeed the organisations, like their athletes, must be able to perform consistently at their peak.
Here in New Zealand, and overseas, there are organisations achieving high standards in every aspect of their operation. They do this because they have robust governance structures, experienced boards, innovative management and staff, development and training, quality systems and processes, effective communications and clearly defined strategies to achieve goals, ongoing performance appraisals, an uncompromising commitment to excellence; a vision that challenges the entire organisation...
They demand the very best of themselves and those who represent them. They are known as Peak Performing Organisations.
They understand that success is a pyramid that is built upon a philosophy of leaving no stone unturned. Precision is required every step of the way upwards. A faulty block here, an omission there, and the pyramid cannot be completed.
They understand too, it comes down to attitude. As with world champion athletes, an unswerving commitment to excellence and a desire for peak performance is the force that drives every successful organisation.
Being a peak performing organisation is not just for the big players. Not every organisation can shine on the world stage, but every organisation has the chance of stardom in its own league.
And finally, a quote from a book about peak performance on the Williams Formula One racing team:
”We (the authors) assumed that the organisation (behind the team) would have a great deal to do with
the winning formula. This proposition proved to be correct.”