The 2016 Summer Olympics featured awe-inspiring performances by top athletes such as Simone Biles and Michael Phelps. But there is another story that should be getting as much attention — and, in practical terms, it has the most relevance to your daily exploits at the office. This story is about innovation.
By following a few Olympic-level innovation principles, you too can medal in grueling workplace competitions:
1. Seek group support for your individual creativity. Biles’ coach, Aimee Boorman, notes that Biles’ routines require less running and allow her to do more tumbling than other gymnasts. Her dominance has its roots in the training regimen developed by the U.S. women’s national team coordinator, Martha Karolyi. Earlier and less successful gymnastics “teams” were really just collections of individuals. Karolyi inspires both individual achievement and a strong commitment to the group. One reinforces the other. At a young age, Biles honed her skills at Karolyi’s ranch, where athletes bunk and train together and spotty cellphone service helps minimize distractions.
2. Build on the innovation that others have already discovered. Phelps embodies a blend of physical endowments, exquisite technique and determination. Less obvious is the decades of innovation that prepared the way for his dominance. Take his mastery of the underwater dolphin kick. Phelps has benefited from innovations that go back at least to David Armbruster, who from 1917 to 1958 coached the University of Iowa swim team. Armbruster saw a demonstration of the technique in 1911 and started encouraging his swimmers to use it in the 1930s instead of the traditional frog kick. More recently, a Johns Hopkins professor of mechanical engineering has taken an interest in analyzing the stroke and lends his technical support to the U.S. swim team. We all see the athletes striving for greatness for two intense weeks, but all of this history and behind-the-scenes activity is a bigger part of the story.
3. Dream, and then work like crazy. Daniel James Brown, in his book “The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics” recounts a scene in which the University of Washington coach conceives of an audacious goal. The excitement of victory often eclipses all of the effort that led to it. You should never forget that the effort turns dreams into reality. While many break-throughs begin with an idea, the ones that make a difference are realized through disciplined practice. Go ahead and dream, but then get down to work.
Mario Moussa and Derek Newberry are the authors of “Committed Teams: Three Steps to Inspiring Passion and Performance.” Moussa teaches in the executive programs at Wharton School of Executive Education. Newberry is a lecturer at the Wharton School.