| How does your organization ‘practice’ for your success? |
| If great athletes don't train, they don't win. Therefore, most of their time is spent practicing, not performing. It's recognized what produced yesterday's win is not always sufficient and sustainable for tomorrow's race. They are also disciplined and have structures that support their improvement like a coach, practice and sleep schedule. The training process builds an athlete's capacity and dedication to keep running the race, distinguishing the gaps, taking on new approaches and reaching for the win. And while winning is their focus, there is often passion and a higher purpose at play also. If there isn't, often the hours and hours of training aren't infused with any kind of play or creativity. That's what a true athlete does. Is this what is happening in your organization? |
| Everyone needs to be present to a purpose and clear about their passion |
Velocity Partnership's work is based on the premise that everyone needs to be present to a purpose, clear about their passion and putting in the discipline of practice and the time to understand the gaps. From there, a reassessment of work structures, behaviours and strategies can occur to keep expanding and growing the individuals and the business as a whole.
Therefore the opportunity is to embrace practice as the pathway to attaining a level of competency at making the impossible happen, and to continue to refine it throughout a lifetime. In short, to develop a mindset for 'being' in the practices, not just doing them. And with this, constantly working the creative thinking skills that we all posses. These are the muscles of greatness. |
| The importance of practice and preparation |
| You become aware that practice gives the space for preparation and is part of daily life, even for someone with mastery over a craft. An actor can't step onstage until the character is developed and the lines are learnt. A singer can't approach the microphone or the audience until the throat is warmed up and the exercises done. Performers and athletes already live that way. You might assume that successful performers and athletes, by nature, have special gifts that 'normal' people can never aspire to. To a large extent, that's not true. Successful performers and athletes are not so much gifted as practiced and prepared. The key to extraordinary performance is the practice. Practice is the threshold of capacity. |
| Have some fun and expand your creativity |
| Great artists, whether singers, actors or musicians will tell you without hesitation that their rehearsal time is often the most difficult, fun, exciting, creative and challenging. They integrate the value of practice, preparation and rehearsal not just into their daily routine, but into their psyches. You can’t be creative without having some fun and you need to allow time for the practice of creativity. Practice is a necessary structure to understand and expand the creative process. And make no mistake about it, creativity is a discipline and the critical ingredient in innovation. |
| It’s a learned instinct |
| The athlete practices every day, no matter how many times he or she has won medals or games. The singer does not count a day complete without 'exercising' his or her voice. Given their amount of rehearsal, their level of performance - even extraordinary performance - is often habitual. And as a result of this commitment to practice, they can count on themselves to be consistent even under the most stressful conditions or adverse circumstances. While their instinct occurs as ‘natural’ in fact it is mostly ‘learned’ from their years of honing it in practice. |
| Slow down to speed up |
| Startlingly enough, practice is often seen as wasting time in business circles when in fact it refers to the opportunity to create remarkable speed within any area. I call this 'slowing down to speed up'. Practice gives an individual absolute ownership of the field as they develop the fine art of introspection, focus and clarity. |
| Make your success a habit |
| The athlete and the artist recognize that each level of 'mastery' is only a plateau on the way to another plateau. They also know that all they have at the moment of 'performance' is habit - the habit developed in practice. The time to learn to sink a basketball is not in the game, it's during the practice. |
| Innovation can’t just be flipped on like a switch |
The same holds true for leadership and the attitude and skills required to play the competitive game of making the impossible happen. These skills are not manifested in the moment as though by a miracle. Consider how many CEOs are asking their companies to be more innovative, like somehow the organization can just 'flip a switch' and make innovation happen. Instead, developing leadership and building in capacity for innovation are the result of a long term commitment to practice and the way of being that practice generates.
A variety of practices are valuable in itself, but the athlete's power comes from the way they mix and reinforce these distinctions to produce a power, as a whole, that is greater than the sum of its individual components. |
|
Meet Cormac, a constant reminder to us that
there is more to life than working...!
*Excerpts taken from the Tracy Goss' book, The Last Word on Power |
