Tag Archives: change and challenge

Change, challenge & a quick word on COVID-19

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Canada’s Marnie McBean and Kathleen Heddle, post race., 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games. Tragically, a bomb had gone off the night before creating uncertainty if the Games would continue or not . (CP PHOTO/COA/Mike Ridewood)

<La version française suit>

Everyone seems to be talking about the COVID-19 and increasingly your Olympics are being pulled into the conversation.  As your Chef de Mission, I want you to know that our priority is the health and safety of every Team Canada member. Stay focused on your preparation, the Tokyo 2020 Games are still very much on. As we all do with all the unplanned events that happen between now and the Games – we will assess and respond accordingly. Talk to your coaches and team leaders; be informed, and try not to let all the speculation distract you. The night before my Olympic final in Atlanta, a bomb went off tragically killing and injuring people. I woke not knowing if there would be delays or cancellations to my race; we didn’t know until we got to our venue what was going to happen. I’m glad we chose to stay focused and arrive ready; it was a gold medal day. The current situation is more drawn out which allows for more uncertainty and speculation. The COC is working with the IOC and our own medical team on this quickly evolving situation to protect your health and performance. We are all in this together and will do our best to keep you informed. 

There are less than 150 days until the Olympics. (How did that happen?!)

What’s your goal? When you are at the Closing Ceremony – how do you want to feel?

At the Sochi Olympics I had separate but similar conversations with two different athletes from completely different sports. A few days before their competitions, both athletes remarked that after everything they had done and everything they had been through – they just wanted to come off their field-of-play happy. (Both of these athletes were medalists from Vancouver, and… spoiler alert– both would win medals again in Sochi.)

Without question a gold medal was their target, but as veterans, they knew another goal had to be to “finish happy”. In competition – all you can control is you; we hope that our performance is the best out there. But you can’t control your competitors, the conditions or the judges… winning is uncontrollable. At the end of the day, regardless of the result – you want to know you did EVERYTHING that you could do to reach your goal. No matter what happens – at least part of you should be happy with knowing you did that.

So, separately over a coffee before their competitions began, we strategized about how to make “happy” happen. How do we finish happy and why is it important? Sure, winning alone can make you happy (and/or relieved) – but you can’t walk onto your field-of-play feeling that something isn’t right and expect sport to magically make you happy. That’s your job. That’s on you to control. Odds are high that if you weren’t happy starting the competition it’s because you know something has been left undone. So… if the goal is to come off the field-of play happy– these veterans knew that it was important to go onto the field-of-play happy. They also agreed it’s easier to win that way! <wink> 

How?

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Do you look for solutions to problems or problems to solutions?

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In many different ways I’ve written about being open to new ideas and change. In my book I shared a story about snowboarding through a gladed run. This particular story spoke of the importance of looking and moving to the spaces around the problems and not looking at the problems themselves. If you want to hit the trees, I concluded – look at the trees. If you want to ‘hit’ the fresh powder, well then …(For that full story click here, but I’ll also put a link at the end of this message.)

Previous to this post, I’ve also written about the value of being young and naïve vs. well seasoned and experienced. I have found that it’s not uncommon for experience to sometimes act as a burden when it comes to problem solving. When we think we know it all we start to become those who know less and less. At some point, because of our experiences, we inadvertently become closed off to challenge of new or changing ideas. That’s when we hear from others, or think to ourselves, “I’ve been doing it this way for X number of years – why would I / should I change?” Our well-honed routines provide us with the comfort that we know what we are doing but they put us at risk for becoming less curious about what we could be doing differently.

So, I come back to my opening remark; do you look for solutions to your problems, or Continue reading →

Do you look for solutions to problems or problems to solutions?

Posted on by
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In many different ways I’ve written about being open to new ideas and change. In my book I shared a story about snowboarding through a gladed run. This particular story spoke of the importance of looking and moving to the spaces around the problems and not looking at the problems themselves. If you want to hit the trees, I concluded – look at the trees. If you want to ‘hit’ the fresh powder, well then …(For that full story click here, but I’ll also put a link at the end of this message.)

Previous to this post, I’ve also written about the value of being young and naïve vs. well seasoned and experienced. I have found that it’s not uncommon for experience to sometimes act as a burden when it comes to problem solving. When we think we know it all we start to become those who know less and less. At some point, because of our experiences, we inadvertently become closed off to challenge of new or changing ideas. That’s when we hear from others, or think to ourselves, “I’ve been doing it this way for X number of years – why would I / should I change?” Our well-honed routines provide us with the comfort that we know what we are doing but they put us at risk for becoming less curious about what we could be doing differently.

So, I come back to my opening remark; do you look for solutions to your problems, or do you find yourself finding problems in your solutions?

This isn’t the type of message where I offer an easy fix-all solution. There isn’t one. It is simply a question that I ask of myself, and I am suggesting that you ask it of yourself. I believe that simply this act of self-reflection will lead you to do a bit of both, which is, in my humble opinion the right way to go. In order to perform at any efficient level you must be looking for solutions to problems but you also must have a sense of what problems might arise.

Having an idea that a problem might present itself is much different than assuming that a problem will present itself. The former allows you to anticipate change and challenge; the later leaves you unwilling to change at all.

 

Before I sign-off – another self-reflective question; (and it’s one of my favourites!) In conversation do you listen, or do you wait to talk? !

 

 

Previous posts on being open to new ideas.

See the Spaces – an excerpt from The Power of More

What are you Listening to?