PREPARATION IS THE KEY
BUT HAVE YOU PRACTICED OR PREPARED?
By
now I thought we would have been sick of post mortem discussions about
Team New Zealand’s resounding defeat in the America’s Cup, but very little
has been said about it lately. It would appear that we would rather forget
the whole
experience, and that is unfortunate. After all, we paid a huge price
both in dollars and public humiliation to unsuccessfully defend the cup
so we might
as well learn something from the debacle.
Most of us would agree that the primary lesson to be learned is that the
key to success is preparation. Team New Zealand clearly did not prepare for
the conditions they encountered on the racecourse either in the type of boat
they designed or in their training in the build up to the race. Probably like
me, you were astounded (and horrified) to hear Tom Schnakenberg say, after
race 1 when the boat nearly sank, that, yes, they had sailed in similarly rough
conditions during their training but they had not pushed the boat very hard
and they hadn’t had the 17th man onboard.
What Team New Zealand has shown us is that there is a difference between
preparation and practice. Practice is doing over and over again those things
you believe you will need to do given the conditions you expect. Preparation,
on the other hand, is rehearsing things you might have to do if you encounter
conditions you didn’t expect. That Team New Zealand was practicing instead
of preparing is clear from a remark Dean Barker made in an interview after
the mast broke when he said that they hadn’t expected such strong winds to
be blowing in February. Oh, really? Surely the members of Team New Zealand
have lived in Auckland long enough to know that it can blow hard anytime.
Besides, isn’t February the cyclone season in the Pacific? And haven’t cyclones
been known to make it this far? Remember Bola?
However the point of this article is not to criticize Team New Zealand but
rather to improve our own business performance by using them as a mirror. In
other words, are we also guilty of practicing rather than preparing?
If, for example, you train your staff in how to talk to customers, you are
practicing. If, on the other hand, you train staff in how to deal with customers
who are unhappy because something has gone wrong, you are preparing. Or to
take another example, if you have taught your staff how to use your computer
system, you have practiced. If you have taught them what to do when the system
crashes, you have prepared. When you train someone to do their job, you are
practicing. When you train them how to do other people’s jobs so they can cover
if that person is away, you are preparing.
On a more general level, how much of your business planning is based around
conditions that you expect to exist, as opposed to those that might exist?
Have you thought about what could go wrong and then worked out how you would
react if they did? Have you trained your staff in these responses? Have you
given them a chance to rehearse what they should do? In other words, have you
prepared?
As Team New Zealand learned the hard way, preparation, not practice, is the
key to success. If, on reflection, you think you have only been practicing,
start preparing before it is too late.
None of us need any more defeats this year.
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