Like so many others I have been up too late these days watching portions of the Olympics. There are of course certain events that are more interesting to me than others, but as a whole the entire competition is fascinating. There are a number of posts that will be coming out of these events so here is my first.
Last night was a night of contrasts - on one hand the US Swimmers totally dominated their events and were breaking new records in almost every contest. On the other hand, the US ladies Gymnastics team struggled with execution. It was pretty common to hear " they have done that hundreds of time in practice but...."
So I guess what is interesting is how the tension and stress of competition at this level can both bring out a surpassing of expectations and for lack of a better word - failure. History too is full of examples of those with grandiose plans and ideas that went nowhere or failed miserably when it came to execution - the Armada, the Titanic, the Hindenburg for example.
In the book "Execution" Larry Bossidy lists the question "can we execute this?" as a vital step for every strategic plan. Too often business leaders and sales people both fall victim to wishful thinking - I want this to work - nice but certainly not enough to capture the gold. When times get tough will your team get better under pressure or will they crack. Wouldn't it be nice to know the answer to that before you get to the Olympics?
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