the first step can often seem like the trickiest bit. Maybe it’s because when we talk about doing things ‘someday’ we get a warm fuzzy feeling, but when we talk about doing it ‘today’ the fear kicks in.

The language you use is a great indicator of whether your doors are open or closed. When you catch yourself using powerless language, challenge yourself to figure out fact from assumption.

high-performing team can achieve astonishing results. In order to do that it needs two things: 1.A ‘MMM’ goal (mutual desire, mutual reliance, measurability) to work towards 2.Agreed team rules which describe what everyone needs to do and say to make the goal a reality.

One of our clients, a bank, gave sales targets to their branches for certain insurance products. The staff ‘knew’ it was an impossible target and there was lots of legitimate chat about how it couldn’t be done, backed up with plenty of valid reasons. However! In one branch one employee not only achieved the target, he absolutely smashed it.

We all have values, things we hold dear. What is on your list? Making a difference? Friendship? Creativity? Goals can translate these into something tangible in the world, and that is richly rewarding.

The crew found that there were three elements to a really powerful team goal. 1a. Mutual desire 1b. Mutual reliance 1c. Measurability

Time and again research shows that what interests people to perform above and beyond average performance is not money, but what the psychologist Herzberg called motivators – things like recognition, interesting work, feeling part of the ‘in’ crowd…

Ben: “Maybe getting a new boat got us 0.4 seconds, maybe the training camp at Ely won us 0.4 seconds, maybe dominating the lake got us 0.4 seconds…who knows? We absolutely wanted that Gold so we put as much in our power as we could.”

2bSpecific When you ask Ben what was important to the crew, or what their culture was, he comes up with a long list: •Learning •Process •Openness •Being tough on themselves and each other •Performance •Being driven •Being passionate •Continuous Improvement It’s a meaty list and impressive, but how on earth do you measure it or make it stick? You