Six strategic lessons we can all learn from the Olympics

Beyond working harder, training longer and investing more, there are important lessons we can all learn from the Olympics which can help us all achieve more

This morning I cried over my breakfast – if you want to know why read lesson number 6.

Lesson 1- What you measure and reward is what gets achieved

Outside the UK people are questioning how the GB cycling team loses at World events and then dominates at the Olympics winning 12 out of 30 medals including 6 golds with the next closest country winning just 2 golds and 5 medals. But really it is no mystery, cycling gets £30 million in funding and the lottery funding is dependent on success at the Olympics. World championship success doesn’t matter, it doesn’t secure funds – what you reward and what you focus on is what you get the best results in.

Lesson 2 - Confidence and belief can achieve miracles

Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.

Henry Ford

Once Team GB started winning it has become infectious – it’s not about rankings it’s about feeling that others have achieved so I can, even though in World rankings it would look absurd. And it is about others in the team also believing and expecting success so it becomes the norm – unfortunately the opposite can be true if you expect to fail then that will also become true

Lesson 3 - The team is mightier than the individual

Much of the inspiration of the Olympics has been in team events – seeing people playing for each other and achieving so much. Every winner even the individuals has talked about the team involved in the success

Lesson 4 - You can’t do it on your own

Every single person at the Olympics has had a coach to help them get there, to provide support, encouragement, feedback – to help them achieve their success. Coaching is as relevant in running organisations and achieving results anywhere

Lesson 5 - We can all be inspired and feel better

It’s been a tough year across the world. Terrorist attacks, the uncertainty caused by Brexit, refugees etc and yet focusing on the positive in the Olympics can make us feel better and be inspired. It certainly has made me feel better and more positive. We can all change our mood by looking for positive rather than negative things to focus on – let’s hope the media can help us

Lesson 6 - The impact of what you do can be bigger than you dreamed

I had started this blog thinking it would be five lessons and then reading the paper this morning I found out about the Refettorio Gastromotiva set up by the world leading chef, Massimo Bottura. He has set up a restaurant for the poor and homeless in Rio using the waste and spare food from the Olympic village. The scale of the waste is huge – so much it can’t all be used by the restaurant so some is sent to other organisations who distribute food across Rio. Bottura is collaborating with David Hertz, a distinguished Brazilian chef and social entrepreneur. He approached the Rio Olympics organising committee and the IOC, but got no support. “No-one was interested. There was nothing,” says Hertz, who has spent the past ten year training those from difficult backgrounds to work as kitchen assistants and spreading the message about good food.

“The Olympics are important for this. It can be an amplifier,” Bottura says, amid frantic preparations for serving 70 diners. “But they are only the start. It is about more than feeding people. We want to rebuild the dignity of people. We want people to walk in and say: ‘Wow! They are serving us?’ We want them to see what food can be. We already see it every night here. They are shaking their heads.”

The New York Times describes it:

“At 6 p.m., the door flung open and the diners shuffled in, eyes wide with anticipation. The chef explained each course, which emerged from the open kitchen on simple white china. Cheers and applause filled the room.

One diner, Rene da Conceição, said the food was the best he’d had in his 40 years, the past nine of which he has spent living with his wife on the streets of Rio.

“Oh my God, he takes banana peels and makes incredible ice cream,” he gushed afterward. “And you know, we ate food from Italy!”

A thin, bedraggled man with a wide, infectious smile, Mr. Conceição explained that his meals were usually scavenged from garbage bins and that he went to bed hungry many nights. Since the Olympics began, he said, the police have barred him from Copacabana, a neighborhood that provides a cornucopia of discarded food and items like cardboard that can be sold to recyclers.

More than filling his stomach, Refettorio Gastromotiva, he said, had provided much-needed dollops of kindness and respect.

“These guys, they shake your hand and they treat you like you’re a boss,” he said. “I thought I was dreaming and told my wife to pinch me. But it wasn’t a dream.”

So for me the Olympics is about more than sport it can be about changing the world by using its waste and that’s why I cried. If we all think more, we can also change the world and what an inspiration this project is.

You can find out more here about the project in Rio.

If you like this blog these may also appeal:

Three reasons to do good in a business

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