How the skills and approaches applied in Olympic disciplines translate to operational excellence

Professional athletes practice repeatedly, over many years, to improve their performance and ultimately prevail over their competitors. Operational excellence initiatives are also about optimizing performance and strengthening competitiveness. The Olympic Games, with an enormous range of different disciplines, can provide insights that can be transferred to your organization.

Olympic disciplines that translate to operational excellence

Ice hockey

In ice hockey, as in many other team sports, a match plan is the basis for success. It describes the strategy for a game and the concrete tactics for the different parts of the team. In ice hockey, practiced combinations are a great advantage; there are well-rehearsed team parts, such as the forwards duo or defensive line, that come together to form a successful team.

Lessons learned: Develop a strategic business model that provides the guidelines for your operating model. Use what-if scenarios to work out your strategy and play through different scenarios. Process management is teamwork. Standardizing processes and work instructions is the basis for high-performance work. Define variants for alternative process handling where necessary.

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