Nudging your way to Olympic gold

Jade Jones was only 19 when she hit the headlines with Olympic Gold in Taekwondo at London 2012.

Talking to her sports psychologist, Sarah Broadhead, recently on our BIG Webinar it was fascinating to hear how “everyday actions” were at the core of her success. Sarah told us the mantra of most Olympic coaches was to focus on the “process, not the outcome.”

A decade ago, there was no slick app to Nudge you and measure your progress. Instead, there was a “tick list” to maintain focus every day. It was reviewed every week in a deep, honest, and reflective coaching conversation. That simple methodology was at the heart of what they did for eight years as they followed success in London with gold in Rio in 2016.

The everyday actions included

  • Simple actions to drive sleep and rest.
  • Small things to focus on diet.
  • Incremental steps to improve strength, stamina, and reflexes.
  • Helping to ensure you take time to switch off – mentally and physically.

Sarah calls these “the things which give you a platform which will give you the best chance to succeed”.

The Jade Jones story is interesting in many ways.  Sarah believes that the principles transfer across from sport to business with ease.

“People are people. The core bits of the human mind work the same,” she told the webinar. “It’s all about trying to focus on the things which are in your control and by doing that not only do you create consistency and new habits, but you also reduce the pressure of thinking about the big outcomes that have been set.  Those big outcomes can seem quite overwhelming.”

Black Isle Group adopts the same principles in the innovative work it is doing to maximise performance in businesses as we try to navigate and uncertain and ever-changing world post-Covid.

Black Isle Group CEO, Jeremy Campbell, explained, “Consistency is really difficult. Habit forming is really difficult. Motivation and will power run out quickly. But what we do is we support people. We hold people accountable, and we help people to improve in a supportive way. We do this with a combination of our NUDGE tech and our laser focussed coaching”

Combining “everyday actions” with the prompting of NUDGE tech has been achieving some remarkable results for some clients.  In many cases engagement with employees has improved by 20% to 30%. Targets which seemed to extremely challenging at the start of this new way or working have been knocked out of the park.

The methodology also helps to sustain performance as goals and circumstances change.

So, have you stop to consider what are the things that you could do differently every day that will help you transform your personal and business performance?

For a demonstration of how NUDGE technology works get in touch with Black Isle Group.