Lessons from the Military

Here is an interesting article from today's Daily Telegraph which could equally well apply to business learning from the military:

 'Colonel Richard Westley, who was awarded the Military Cross for his service in the Balkan Wars and now leads the Army's Operational Training Advisory Group, addressed leading Olympic coaches and performance directors at UK Sport's World Class Performance Conference on Tuesday. He told them that while the consequences of failure for athletes and soldiers are incomparable, the principles of team-building and the tools used to handle the pressures of life-and-death situations can have applications in sport.

"I believe there are elements that are applicable for the sporting arena," he said. "If you are an athlete who has devoted four or eight years to performing for a matter of minutes in Olympic competition, you are in a high-pressure, high-performance environment.

"They are totally focused on their performance, but the key for the Olympic team could be to try and give them a wider team ethos of Team GB. That is comparable to what we do with team building. Soldiers fight for their mates, for the guys they trained with and drank with, but they also have to fight for Queen and country. The team-building part of that is crucial, and there is a parallel between sport and the military."

Col Westley also pointed to similarities between the effects of pressure on soldiers and athletes. "For both the stakes are high when they are asked to perform at their best. For us it is life-and-death, for an athlete it could mean wasting four years of their life.

"So it is about inculcating a sense of pride, or national pride, team pride and individual pride in the effort. Whether you are fighting in Helmand or attempting to win an Olympic medal you have to be able to look yourself in the mirror and say, 'Did I give it everything?'

"If the answer is no, it could define the rest of your life whether you're an athlete or a soldier. For those preparing for London they have less than 1,000 days to make sure that when they ask that question they can answer yes.

"They will face situations where all your instincts are telling them not to do something. They are fatigued, it is frightening and the pressure is for fight-or-flight, but their reaction in that ultimate moment will define the way they see themselves forever, regardless of whether they win or lose." '

Lessons from the Military