Get off the bench

Benchmarking is the process of identifying best practice in relation to both products and the processes by which those products are created and delivered. The search for "best practice" can take place both inside a particular industry, and also in other industries (for example - are there lessons to be learned from other industries?).  Benchmarking is set by your toughest competitors whether you like it or not. 

It’s everywhere you look and is not just confined to the rigors of running a business.  Seemingly every facet of life is compared and contrasted from school league tables to NHS waiting lists to the world’s GDP. 

It is also a factor in sports at the highest level – not least because there’s a league table and world ranking for pretty much every single sport.

This summer of sport has been a good lesson in benchmarking.  We crashed out of the Fifa World Cup early, lost at the cricket, got beaten by the All Blacks in rugby and, Andy Murray, our lone sporting hope at the end of that depressing list, lost dramatically and unexpectedly in the 4^th round at Wimbledon.  British sport is again in that depressing familiar cycle of hope, a few days of fervent belief with a big dose of optimism followed by the come-down of defeat and resignation.   The managers and coaches in each of these examples will doubtless have reasons why they failed, and a strategy and a plan to turn things around and benchmarking will no doubt play a part as they look to emulate those who are consistently at the top of their game.

However, my concern is a general lack of competitiveness at the start of the race - way down to the seemingly unimportant primary school sports day.  I am limbering up for my daughters’ events this week and am hard in training for the parents’ race…..  We’ve been informed that there are no winners – each child has a valuable contribution to make regardless of their ability and awarding winners’ rosettes undermines children’s confidence. Essentially by having no winners, you therefore have no losers.  To get to the top of any sport starts early – the new men’s Wimbledon Champion didn’t start playing when he was doing his A levels.  Sports stars of the future need to learn the mental toughness required for a win (and a loss) early.

My benchmarking mantra is “adopt, adapt, improve” and we’re never going to be at the top of a league table by adding “running away from defeat” to that.

The positive however, looking on the bright side, is no Prayle is a loser at sport this summer.  Game on!