For the first time in God knows how long, I went through a 48 hour period with no electrical power and no internet! I can't believe I survived it myself. That deprivation is the reason I couldn't write this blog over the weekend as I normally do.
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| All Aboard |
It was all for a good cause through. The weekend was spent sailing on The Solent, part of the English Channel, a strip of water between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wright as part of the Cranfield Regatta team. This was a bucket list item for me and I'm glad I did it, though I doubt I will ever do it again. It was HARD, manual work. Pulling ropes, turning a wrench, in cold wet weather. Aargh, I still shiver as I remember.
The best part? This was the 24th edition of the regatta hosted annually by Cranfield and for the first time - Cranfield won! I wasn't part of the winning boat, in fact my boat was 9th out of 18 but Cranfield had 7 boats and one of them won. It was a truly historic moment and I'm really glad to have been part of it. Kudos to my team as well. We had a team of 5 ladies and 1 guy but with the help of a great skipper and second mate, we achieved our objective which was to be part of the first ten.
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| 2015 Cranfield Regatta Winning Team |
So while basking in this glow, I thought I'd ask you if you've ever been part of making history? What does it take to make history? I asked the winning team and one of them said:
1. A clear strategy
2. A clear plan of execution
3. Subject Matter Expertise
4. Ability to read dynamic circumstances and
5. Flexibility to adapt your plan as required to meet the changing dynamics
6. (My own addition) - the help of God, to crown your efforts with good success
I used to think strategy was a big word that only highly intelligent people could aspire to being able to craft. The truth is strategy is really simple. A strategy answers three questions:
A. Where are we?
B. Where do we want to get to?
C. How do we get there? With timelines.
That doesn't sound like rocket science now, does it? It's the willingness to take time to think through the answers to those questions that define master strategists from ordinary folk.
Once the strategy is defined, the rest is a bit easy as well. Organizational skills to come up with the details of a good plan of action, which would have been defined at a high level in the strategy.
Subject matter expertise is where we might need those "glasses wearing folks" but fear not - you can beg, borrow or buy expertise. So fear dealt with. Reading the winds or assessing the situation as you begin to execute requires a combination of the skills of everyone in the team. The same heads that developed the strategy and are executing it then simply need to be ready to make changes as needed. No one way track minded people needed on a history making team, sorry.
Why do I add the 6th element? Cranfield team F didn't include this and yet they won. The truth of the matter is as hard as they worked, it was still a 50:50 thing. Any little thing could have happened to change the entire situation. After all, can we say all the teams racing the past 24 years didn't have any of the above at all?
Bible says time and chance happens to all men. Without God, you may succeed. With God, you WILL succeed. Sometimes it doesn't happen at the time we want, most times the path to success is strewn with all kinds of obstacles, but with God on your side, your chances are tipped more in favour of success than failure. It's never easy, but the end result is sure.
Finally, opportunity comes to the prepared is one of my mantras. Cranfield Team F's success clearly demonstrates this. They prepared and when opportunity came they seized it. Did I mention the defending champions came 6th? What do we say to that? Time and chance, my friends. Time and chance.
So, with a body that's only just recovering, may I wish you a wonderful work week. We'll catch up again over the weekend.
Blessings on you and yours,
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| Sunsail 4016 |
Your friend,
Olubunmi
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