I was the facilitor for a national conference recently. It was for Health and Safety Representatives in the Australian Oil and Gas Industry.
Having been involved in the planning of the conference I was keen to see it run smoothly. (This may have led to anxiety dreams the night before. You know – the usual ones where you’re running late for a conference. And not being able to find your car keys, you took your old car – but realised you’d since sold it to someone else, so were driving to the conference in a stolen car…)
And run smoothly it did! The keynote speaker was Dr Ric Charlesworth, legendary Australian hockey player and coach. His subject was ‘How can teams function best? Improving decision making and responsibility.’
As a little bit of background, Ric coached both the Australian women’s and men’s hockey teams. Under his coaching the womens team was ranked World No.1 for eight years and won two Olympic gold medals. The men’s team won the Champion’s Trophy a record-breaking four times in a row during his tenure, along with the 2010 World Cup and Commonwealth Games gold medal.
There were many gems from Ric – here a just a few that any person working with teams should consider.
“Every day at work is a training day. Every incident is an opportunity for learning.”
“Teamwork is doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason.”
“Everyone on the team has to be a leader.”
“Have the best interests of your team at heart and respect their opinions.”
I thought that these were excellent insights, whether you’re in a sporting environment, working in the Oil and Gas Sector or trying to get your own work team to function more effectively. I’m interested in your thoughts on which of these is the most relevant to ‘your team’ and why…
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