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What’s Olympic Rowing Got To Do With Team Building?

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What’s rowing a boat got to do with team building and motivation?

I was recently lucky enough to hear Olympian Ben Hunt Davies speak on how his team of 8 men became Olympic rowing gold medal winners by repeatedly asking themselves a simple question… “will it make the boat go faster?” by adopting the focus of this mantra their responses were just as simple.

If the answer was yes they did it, if it was no they didn’t. The degrees that they took this philosophy to even included attending the opening ceremony Ben and his team asked themselves ”Will spending 5 hrs marching around waving a flag in a hot stadium, missing scheduled meals when training for the biggest race of your life make the boat go faster?” The answer was No!…so they didn’t go, (they watched it on TV) Was it the right decision? Ben will tell you…“everyone else got the glory but we got the gold!”

To help you develop your teams focus to the same level on your goals
Ben has listed his 5 top Olympic winning team building strategies.

"Everyone else got the glory, but we got the gold!"

“Everyone else got the glory, but we got the gold!”

5 Olympic-winning strategies for harnessing the power within your team

1. Clarity of Goals
Ben and his crew were absolutely clear on their goal, making the boat go faster to achieve an Olympic gold, and they translated this into yearly, monthly and daily goals. How often in the corporate world do we have an ill-defined sense of where we’re going and how often is this confusion multiplied by different interpretations amongst managers and staff? When everyone signs up to a clear, compelling goal we can make sure every ounce of effort is directed in the same direction. Clear goals are like magnets, pulling teams together.

2. Strong Belief
They diarised belief building sessions in the same way they scheduled weights or endurance training. Why? Because they realised beliefs were just as important. There is a huge raft of evidence to show that strong belief breeds positive behaviours. The crew created a list of reasons why they were becoming a great team and why they would win, this might translate into a list of reasons why the product and service is fantastic, or why the sales target is achievable.

3. Controlling the Controllables
They focused purely on the things they could control and let go of factors that they could not. This meant, for example, not worrying about weather conditions. Even though the weather has a huge impact on rowing performance but it was completely outside their control. We could reap huge dividends if we focussed our attention in the workplace more stringently on only controlling the controllables.

4. Bouncebackability
A high jumper who fails at their first attempt needs to pull themselves together to nail the second attempt in a matter of minutes. Sport psychology pays significant attention on how to perform under pressure and bounce back from defeat. When disaster strikes do we get caught up in analysis paralysis or do we dust ourselves off and take that all important next step forward?

5. BS Filters
Ben and his crew had countless people telling them their dream was impossible. The crew learnt not to confuse other people’s negative opinions with facts.
If their detractors were annoying they used this as emotional rocket fuel to spur themselves on. It is a powerful lesson, treat fact as fact and opinion as opinion. They would never shied away from painful facts, but were careful to challenge unhelpful opinions. Sport is more than just a powerful metaphor for business. Many of the sporting philosophies that underpin Gold can be transferred directly into the workplace.

Ben has teamed up with corporate performance coach Harriet Beveridge to write the book “Will it make the boat go faster? Olympic-winning strategies for everyday success”

Dave’s Story

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Counting what really counts!

One of the best things about working at Therapy Solutions is that we get to help some of the most innovative organisations. Companies who are as passionate about  their wellbeing and reward programmes and delivering thousands of treatments to hundreds of sites all over Europe like IKEA, Macalpine, Legal and General, and even Russian Meerkats!

The truth is I am never happier than when we are working on a one to one level having feedback from the individual. The employee who doesn’t get the headaches any longer. The employee whose posture is now correct so they don’t get the aches and pains from sitting at their desk. The construction worker whose lower back pain has gone or the employee who feels valued and brags to friends about working for their company because they love where they work.Because Its then, when you hear the individual’s stories that you know you’re really making a difference, employees like Dave!

Dave’s story

When I first met dave back in 2000 he had spent many years as a fit and healthy man serving in the army but had to leave due to an injury. NTL as it was (A Virgin Media site now) were opening a 2000 seater call centre in the town and he took a job there thinking it would be better for him as the role allowed him to be seated. Within just a few months he was having he quite sever back and hip pain that he was finding quite debilitating, to the point where he was considering leaving the job as it was becoming a real problem for him.

Fortunately for Dave the the company had booked massage sessions twice a week for all their staff. I was still working hands in those days so having given him a massage at his desk I was able to feel the area of tension and this, along with looking at his workstation and chair position I advise him on how to improve his posture.

The company also operated a hot-desking policy which meant never getting the same chair twice so it was crucial that he understood the importance of sitting correctly. I taught him the basics of our simple 60 second posture routine called Sitright so whatever the chair he could sit correctly.

Within 3 weeks of doing this his pain had disappeared…. not long after I moved to an admin role and left the ‘hands on’ side of the business just visiting the site occasionally to meet up with managers. Over 12 years later he spotted me on site and told me how the massage had made him pain free and allowed him to keep his job.

Its about making the difference

It’s when you hear stories like that you know that as a company we are truly making a difference not only to individuals like Dave but also to our clients. Its very difficult to measure the impact of a situation like that, where do you start?

Well, Dave worked in a large contact centre and they have one of the highest attritions rates running at about 24% some times as high as 40% with the average drop off point being 18 months. With direct recruitment costs running at around 3,000 and hidden costs increasing it to a more realistic £6000 you could argue that over the last 15 years we have potentially saved the company in the region of  50,000 in recruitment costs alone for an investment of a few hundred pounds. That is without any potential litigation which could mean a 6 or even 7 figure sum.

Loyal, engaged and happy!
But the most important aspect is that they have retained a now very loyal, engaged and happy member of staff who is still there and has a wealth of knowledge available he’s is also more productive because who works well when they are in pain? All of that is this is priceless for a company but it is impossible to account for it on a spreadsheet. And that’s because very often it what really counts just can’t be counted!
Hear Dave tell his own story in the video clip below

 

 

Improving Employee Performance by Putting People First

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With the warmer weather finally on its way and everything springing into life, I’ll be taking a look at how we can create the ‘Spring effect’ for employees and boost their productivity at the same time.

 

“I’m going to underperform today!”easy-to-do-great-work-note

Lets face it, no one comes into work and says “I’m going to underperform today!” most employees want to do a good job. As managers we’ve all heard the cry “People are your most important asset” and so know that we should be investing in them and yet many companies are still neglecting this fundamental truth.

It’s all too touchy feely!

If there was a new piece of software or technology that could improve  performance by up to *48% most managers would buy it without question, but if it involves investing in the actual employee it can still be perceived as a bit touchy feely… “it can’t have any real impact on performance …can it?” Smart managers know that you can have all the high tech gismos in the world but if the carbon based life form at the end of the process is unmotivated, stressed or feeling drained when they answer a call the customer knows it. All the expensive technology becomes instantly worthless.

Is there anybody there?

No need to hold a séance just yet but many employees will be IN work but not AT work, not truly present, they come in, ‘sit out’ their shift and then go home. For many, their presence and performance is often restricted by the very nature of the job. Commonly employees feel undervalued stressed or are just physically aching and tired.

The 3 major issues that effect employee performance

1. Lack of engagement
2. High levels of stress
3. High levels of muscular skeletal problems (aches and pains)

Tactical and relevant rewards

How many of your current reward or wellbeing programmes tackle these issues? While a box of chocolates, pizza or fruit will always go down well, a deep pan pepperoni or the occasional banana, with the best will in the world, is never going to relieve an aching neck, tight shoulders or reduce stress levels.
The rewards you implement need to be relevant so the employee knows that you appreciate that aspects of the role can be challenging and that you have addressed it. By investing in a tactical and relevant reward programme you can improve morale and engagement levels, reduce stress, boost energy and improve muscular aches and pains.

Engaged, comfortable and awake!

There are 3 fundamental things an employee should be to perform well. Simply put, they need to be engaged, comfortable and awake!

1. Engaged

An engaged workforce will drive business performance and have a direct impact on the bottom line. Engaged employees are people that are highly motivated and vested in the success of their organizations and are willing to make an extra, discretionary effort in their daily work. By incentivising staff with relevant rewards you make them feel valued, motivated and engaged.

2. Comfortable

Many agents (* typically 65% +) complain about muscular aches and pains as well as high levels of headaches affecting them. (How well does anyone work if they are in pain?) Employees frequently describe the level they feel they are working at when they have muscular aches and pains as around 70%. By reducing the impact of muscular skeletal problems and improving agent posture you can quickly and easily boost productivity.

3. Awake

One of the questions asked in our wellbeing survey is How do you feel at the end of an average shift? The word “tired”  is used on average in 75% of the answers, along with a variety of more colourful language. The obvious next question is At what point during the day did you lose them? One of the biggest drainers of energy is stress, and one of the main ways to reduce stress is to energise! The more energised, refreshed and focused someone feels the less stressed they are, it gives people the “ability to cope”. By boosting employee energy levels you can ensure that they remain refreshed .

Improve their day, Improve your numbers

By tackling the 3 major issues effecting an agents work life on a daily basis, the work becomes easier to perform. This will then substantially improve employee productivity.
To find out how much performance you’re loosing to low motivation stress and muscular skeletal problems ask about our employee wellbeing survey.

Donna Phillips MICHT MGPBT
Head of Happy Healthy Staff Dept
Therapy Solutions

* results from national wellbeing and engagement survey