On paper, the Olympic Games seems like an event impossible in its enormity and audacity, with 206 countries and 10,500 athletes competing in front of 500,000 spectators.
In addition, there are multiple regulations and expectations on Olympic and sporting officials from around the world and an unpredictable list of obstacles to overcome – from construction timelines to geopolitical unrest, economic pressures and, in relation to the most recent Olympic Games, pandemics.
Yet every time, the seemingly impossible becomes possible.
As one of the team who delivered the Sydney Olympics back in 2000, I’ve seen the mountains being moved behind the scenes to create a seamless, showstopper event.
While the eyes of the world are focused on the stars of the show – the humans doing superhuman things – I can’t help but look for the people making the magic happen. It takes me back to the days of being employee number 52 in what would become a delivery team of thousands, and the transformative experience of being part of a bold, purposeful team.
Creating change
But you don’t need to be delivering the world’s largest sporting event to bring that same mindset to your organization. I’ve seen it happen on a smaller scale many times and have made it my mission to help leaders bring that same ambitious mindset to any problem or opportunity. Here’s how: be bold.
Every organization, government and person on the planet is faced with seemingly insurmountable problems right now. From the challenges of climate change and large-scale human conflict to persistent inequalities in gender, wealth, health, education and, of course, the impact of rapidly advancing technology. We can’t solve these non-traditional problems with traditional solutions.
As leaders, creating change starts with identifying big, bold problems to solve, an incredible purpose for your people to get behind and providing the right conditions for them to thrive. Don’t let the impossibility of the problem hold you back.
Looking for a real world approach? The best I’ve witnessed is a corporate innovation boot camp technique called an ‘ExO Sprint’.
Problems like solving the energy needs of the world and ambitious goals give people a massive transformative purpose, a chance to be part of something bigger than themselves and to make an impact.
During this transformational three-month experience, internal teams come up with impactful solutions to big juicy problems, drawing on the proven attributes of Exponential Organizations (ExOs) based on the work of the globally renowned futurist Salim Ismail.
The result? Not only do these teams come up with groundbreaking solutions every single time, they are also supercharged with a different mindset, expanded worldview and future-fit capabilities that deliver value well beyond the sprint experience.
I was recently one of the coaches delivering an ExO Sprint for Siemens Energy, and I witnessed yet again how a bold purpose helps people to find bold solutions.
We brought 41 people together from 10 countries across the Asia–Pacific region to tackle big problems surrounding global energy transition, including manufacturing excellence, decarbonizing the maritime industry and supercharging emerging clean energy technologies.
Problems like solving the energy needs of the world and ambitious goals – like delivering the world’s largest sporting event – give people a massive transformative purpose, a chance to be part of something bigger than themselves and to make an impact.
New ways of working
What big and bold problem could your people be solving? New ways of working.
Preparing for the Sydney 2000 Olympics meant working in non-traditional ways. While there were structures and scaffolding in place around us, we weren’t micromanaged or confined to rigid job descriptions. We were given radical autonomy and permission to collaborate, which meant we could roll up our sleeves and get on with the job.
But we also had a cadence and protocols to how we were working. We knew there would be regular check-ins and opportunities to report on our progress and receive feedback.
We collaborated with committees and experts from across the world, we asked questions and we experimented. We tested venues and sites with smaller events in the lead-up to the main Olympic events and used these as opportunities to learn and then improve, ultimately delivering the ‘best Olympic Games ever’.
Similarly, in the ExO Sprint for Siemens Energy, participants were given permission to do the best work of their lives. They were coached throughout the process and encouraged to ask questions to pressure test their ideas.
Nothing is more motivating than a fixed deadline or an intense setting.
They were given autonomy, but with the knowledge that we were there to support them and guide them. It was a contemporary approach to work, and the result was truly innovative and potentially world-changing ideas, which are now being invested in further.
As Kendra Rauschenberger, General Partner at Siemens Energy Ventures, said, the experience didn’t just create amazing solutions to bold problems, it also created new entrepreneurial thinkers within the business.
“The experience created 41 leaders within our company who have fallen in love with problems rather than just ideas, expanded their knowledge, experimented with building real most valued players and stepped up their individual and collective game – supporting each other when the going got tough and cheering each other’s wins,” Rauschenberger explained.
“I can’t wait to see what they bring back to their respective teams around the world, and how their new thinking influences our company at every level.”
Intensity. Nothing is more motivating than a fixed deadline or an intense setting.
Just as the Olympic Games has to happen to an immovable schedule, creating situations where your people are working to a deadline or within a setting that takes them away from their daily grind helps make big things happen.
Making it a priority
The idea of the ExO Sprint is that we have a focused effort for three months, giving people clear time frames and expectations alongside the pressure of a deadline. Attempting to solve big problems or create real change without a set deadline means you’ll end up with too little, too late.
As Parkinson’s Law tells us, a task will expand to fill the time allocated for us, and this applies on any scale. Setting expectations for something big that takes years to deliver isn’t going to inspire innovative thinking or bold action.
Not only does intensity build motivating pressure, it also creates an opportunity to celebrate, culminating in the elation of achieving something that previously felt insurmountable.
During the Sydney 2000 Olympics, this included a thank you parade for our volunteers through the streets of Sydney, but it doesn’t have to be on this scale to acknowledge people’s achievements.
One of the participants in the recent Siemens Energy ExO Sprint confessed to me at the beginning that they couldn’t see how they were supposed to solve such big problems, when the business already has dedicated innovation teams who make problem-solving their business every day of the year.
You have an opportunity now to harness the Olympic mindset within your own team.
Imagine her delight when at the end of the three months, her team pitched a bold new idea that secured funding – proof that the process works.
You have an opportunity now to harness the Olympic mindset within your own team. Not the training and dedication of the athletes – as inspiring as it is – but the ambitious achievements of the people behind the scenes making the Paris Olympic Games happen.
Try running your own innovation Olympics internally and challenge teams to come up with fresh ideas to solve persistent problems, or give your people permission to think bigger and bolder, cheering them on to achieve something that feels impossible.
Create a ‘sprint’ of your own, taking people out of their everyday setting for a portion of each week and empowering them to innovate on a completely new level. But be warned – it will only succeed with the right tools and conditions, so you need to avoid the trap of ‘innovation theater’ and put a robust structure in place for it to work well.
Being bold and audacious doesn’t only have to happen on a global stage – you can use the same principles for change in your own teams, starting today.
