What Sport can teach us about Team Performance

This is where the world of sport offers powerful, practical insight. And a great opportunity to chat, explore and dissect favourite teams to understand how they work and what we can extract.

In elite sport, for example, there is nowhere to hide; football matches are covered on TV, media reports every kick, there are TV shows analysing the coverage of Golf from every angle and the likes of Netflix documents sport inside out.

Performance is highly visible, results in sport are immediate and pressure is constant. And yet, the best teams consistently deliver, over a given periods, not necessarily because they have the best individuals – think Lewis Hamilton in a poorly built car? - but because they function as a unit.

How many people does it take to put an f1 driver on track. Even golfers have a ‘team’ of coaches, support staff, physios and such like these days. Individual sports are a team event too.

They understand:

• Roles and responsibilities with absolute clarity

• The importance of preparation and practice

• The value of trust and communication under pressure

• How to review, learn, and improve continuously

And more…..

This is why using sporting environments and experiences to explore team performance in business can be so effective.

It takes the theory out of the room and puts people into real situations, where behaviour, communication and teamwork are tested live.