The idea that by writing out your ideas in depth (tested on logic) as opposed to just bullet points (half-baked idea), the depth and clarity of your thinking will pay greater dividends. Individuals also have more creative and varied ideas than groups. But they also have more bad ideas. So you will need to flush out the bad ideas first. To use brainwriting with a group, to tease out the best ideas in great depth, start by asking everyone in your group to write down their ideas. Then individually ask them to share them with the group. The group will give feedback on the suitability of each idea and suggest which ideas should be taken forward in the process (filter towards quality). Combining the power of individuals creativity with the strength of collectedness that groups provide. This works best if people do not know whose idea is whose, so elect a narrator, to present the ideas as neutrally as possible to the group. The next steps would be more brain writing on the idea(s) and allocation of next steps, delegation of tasks and timelines. Take the wisdom of crowds to make the ideas with higher potential succeed and unlock the potential in the whole group, not just from not the loudest individual, most enthusiastic speaker or the boss that has the most compelling ideas always. #dothework #strive

A study was conducted on ‘repeat Olympic Gold medallists’ and the standout marker between those champions in different games to just one-off winners, was a commonality to experiencing trauma. There is a paper titled “The Rocky Road to the Top – Why Talent Needs Trauma, by Collins & MacNamara that is worth reading. In short, it backs up the notion that those sustained high performers have experienced a form of trauma. “These high levels of life challenge are shown to have a direct correlation to senior success”. ”low points resulted in self reported ‘turning points’ resulting in a re-focusing and increased effort from the participants” The ability of athletes to develop grit, resilience, perseverance and high emotional intelligence (EQ) is critical in this high performance journey. So if experiencing trauma is a potential key, is it possible to artificially create controlled challenges and failures throughout the talent development pathway? I’ve seen many pathways as too linear and smooth for athletes to reach a ‘relative top’. I believe it’s important for program leads and coaches to micro-dose athletes with individual challenge points to ensure they accumulate multiple deliberate experiences (positive as well as negative) on their journey up the pathway. #overcomingtrauma #strive

A former colleague (and friend) @dr craig Harrison recently spoke about his ‘IDEA learning framework’ on his podcast The Athlete Development Show. It’s a framework to support learning through exploration. For this to occur, you need all four components: I – Interest (any learning is catalysed through an interest, curiosity, excitement, fear etc). Have you thought about this? D – Diagnosis. Determine what is actually going on. Ask questions, brainstorm, explore experiences to get facts or things accurate so we can move forward and solve / improve on what’s actually going on. E – Experiment. Try X, test Y, gather feedback and see what you learnt? A – Appraisal. Feedback, two way learnings. This will them impact the diagnosis and then the Experiment – refinement.

Take a sneak peak at the book I have been writing for the past 5 years. I would love to hear any feedback you might have. You can access it for FREE for members. Click on my Classroom to download.

Hey team, sorry, its mid season break right now. Ive just recorded 5 new podcast guest that will be dropping shortly. 5 more before the end of the season. Question for you - what type of guests are more impactful? Coaches? Athletes? Parents? And why?????