Member Article

The Olympic legacy

In the last few days the press has begun to ask how we can build an ongoing and sustainable Olympic legacy, how we can make sure that we have the same, or even more success in Rio and beyond.

Clearly after the debacle of Atlanta a decision was made that we needed to invest in sports to give us the ability to identify and nurture talent. This began to bear fruits in Beijing and has made a huge impact in London.

Whilst much has been made of the home advantage, our performance has been remarkable and we must now ask ourselves how we can make sure that this success continues. It is interesting that, following success in Sydney, Australian participation in sports and Olympic success have fallen away.

So the challenge is to identify what made us successful, and what we could have done better, and to concentrate on these areas. In the world of business this is called a Post Project Review – the definition of which varies, but here is one –

“The purpose of the Post Project Review (PPR) is to review the completed project and find lessons learnt on what went well and what could be done better.

This review is not a process or session to apportion blame for any issues affecting the project. However it is intended to promote collaboration and agreement on what and why there were advantages and disadvantages to doing things a certain way.“

Once you have captured the information the next stage is to understand how to implement your findings, to make sure that you embed the successful elements permanently into your business.

Of course not every business has such seismic events from which they can learn. The owners and managers of these businesses therefore need to look outside for such experience. One way of gaining this knowledge is by using Non Executive Directors (NED’s) – who have experience in specific areas and can bring this to bear. However many businesses are unwilling or unable to bear the costs of NED’s. For them sharing experiences and issues with their peers can be an excellent alternative way of improving their business. This is often called peer-to-peer mentoring.

A great way to undertake this peer-to-peer development is through Leadership Groups, like http://yorkshireleadership.co.uk/fpgd/nelg/ which is starting it’s next series of meetings at the Lit & Phil in Newcastle on the 23rd October – for further details and a free place please contact me -

Phil Dibbs

www.hawkmoorassociates.com

phil@hawkmoorassociates.com

07866362333

Or click on this link:-

http://northeastleadershipgroup.eventbrite.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Phil Dibbs .