By Jennet Burghard and Lot Wielders
This summer the Dutch Equestrian sports people won 20% of all the Dutch Olympic medals on London… Three times silver and one bronze medal. We had the chance to work with the Olympic dressage team, the eventing team and the Paralympic dressage team on ‘being the best team possible’.
Imagine you’re a brilliant rider. To be specific, dressage is your expertise. Day in, day out you are training to be in complete harmony with your horse and to achieve the perfect result on the Olympic Games. You have formed your own staff with an excellent trainer, groom, vet, farrier and so on. You ride and train your horses every day and you’re probably doing all this on your own estate or equestrian center. You’re over twenty-five years old, not single anymore and if you would like to, you may imagine that you also have children.
And then when you’re selected to be in the National team, especially for the Olympic Games, circumstances really change. Now you are a member of the Dutch Dressage Team. You have to deal with the other team members for about ten days. Your own staff is not nearby. You will be staying in the Olympic Village and see and meet all those other top athletes. You have to share a room with another rider of your team. The distance from the Village to the stables is at least 45 minutes.
So how do you deal with this as an individual top athlete? How do you stay focused? What kind of a team will make you feel at your best or beyond this? What do you need from the other team members and what are you willing and or able to give? What is important for you in the context of being part of this Olympic Team? That’s what our coaching program is about: How can this team be the best possible team in this moment in time for every rider?
By using the MindSonar measurement we are able to make this very clear in a short time. Gain insight in the criteria that are held by everyone and which thinking styles are dominant or lacking. Not only for the riders but also for the team captain, the manager and the vet. And then talk about this together and come to new insights, understandings and agreements.
For example in a team that scores a high average on ‘solo’ you really have to find out how much solo is needed for everyone and when. High score on ‘solo’ means to someone really have a desire to concentrate on their own affairs, a need for working alone, undisturbed by other people. Normally this is not something that people are consciously aware of … they just start feeling annoyed if there’s to much emphasis on doing all kind of things together, like “where do WE have breakfast, lunch and dinner?” “At what time do WE leave for the training?”
Or the difference between the thinking styles ‘global’ and ‘specific’. “How was you’re training?” asks one team member with the Meta Program ‘specific’. “Fine” answers the other with Meta Program ‘global’. “Hmm”, goes our ‘specific’ thinking rider, “Why being so rude? Why not answering the question, I am really interested in how you’re training was. I think I am not going to ask this again”. Our ‘Global’ rider doesn’t have a clue of what is happening, because “fine” was how it was, a genuine answer. He’s not thinking any more specific then this.
Understanding and insight in each others Meta Programs is really a wonderful way to avoid misunderstandings and, as we found out in the last few years, to create a team spirit of respect and empathy. Of course this is helpful for any team in any context. Management teams, Project teams, sports teams. What makes the top athletes so special is their eagerness, willingness and readiness to learn and to improve every day. It is such a privilege to work with them.
Jennet Burghard and Lot Wielders
This gave a lot of information about how the team works, as opposed to the individual. And in playing to win, this is a big deal, possibly making or breaking the team. I think it’s just great that you help people (or teams) focus on what’s important to help make them better from within. Especially when we’re talking about something as big as the Olympics. Most people just focus on the physical aspect of it all, or in this case, their bond with the animal as well. But the thing is, the mental and emotional aspect of it all plays a HUGE part in the limitations of the physical. I think it’s great that you’ve extended your reach to almost all aspects of human life…you really are helping.
Its amazing to see how mind training can have such a great impact in sports and specially as a team, setting the right thoughts before any competition will also make the practices more effective. That was a great way of applying mind sonar.
I agree completely that it is rather more difficult to achieve, when there are different styles of thinking in a team. The situation gets worse if we know not even the kind of thinking that each one of the members of the team.
It is very interesting as through the Mindsonar tool this problem can be addressed quickly and effectively.
This article is very encouraging
Know in advance the thinking style using MindSonar from this example you can create and strengthen alliances within a work team. I believe that even applying it as one of the first activities in the induction to a company or project would save much time and effort to the organization. Creating the culture or modify it according to this knowledge can really harmonize relations between the people and therefore can facilitate human processes