A great method to be brief but explain the outline of any plan is the Who, What, Why, Where and When method, or 5W’s. Now that’s great as an overarching plan, but to be successful, we will need to add depth in utilising ‘the how’. The how is like the glue for the 5W’s method and allows the details to be shared to assist with achieving the plan.
So, a brief recap of our 5W’s;
Who - A Royal Army Physical Training Corps (Army) quartet of 2 males and 2 females = Force Atlantic 21.
What - We are participating in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, “The World’s Toughest Row”, a 3000 mile unsupported Ocean rowing race.
Why - To promote the physical and mental resilience developed through such campaigns (harnessed within service life). Secondly, to showcase the opportunities available for all regardless of gender, socioeconomic or elite sports performance backgrounds - but also as you will recall from previous blogs, why not!
Where - From La Gomera, Canary Islands to Antigua.
When - Leaving La Gomera on 12 Dec 21.
As project lead it’s been vitally important that I set the right standards and uphold the qualities that will provide confidence to those around me, which in turn, will allow the best conditions for our team to succeed. This means building an environment that empowers them as individuals and gives them their own purpose within our team. This should be challenging but equally both personally fulfilling and rewarding. Success for me can be summarised as achieving our goals without sacrificing our own values, standards and expectations. Our team (I hope) will go through this whole experience with an overarching positivity and then reflect with huge fondness on the enormity of this challenge upon completion.
I aligned myself with outstanding individuals to allow me the best possible opportunity at completing this enormous challenge. Before even setting team goals, my own goals were simple; 1. Row the Atlantic Ocean. 2. Take the first Corps team over the Atlantic Ocean. 3. Showcase the opportunities within the forces. But these were only mine and this was long before I had spoken to anyone or formed any alliances or even had any teammates. Since our team has formed, I can honestly say my goals have developed in line with the teams’ goals and I feel intrinsically better for it.
What does it take to succeed?
It takes many different components to truly succeed, but here are some of the components that we have focused on.
• People. Firstly, the right people - we have 4 quality operators, each with their own strengths, responsibilities and maturity. Now when I say maturity, I don’t mean that they don’t pull funny faces or laugh at inappropriate stuff, I’m referring to professional maturity, which I will define for this purpose as confident and courageous. They have confidence in their knowledge and ability yet recognise any fears but will still do the right thing - ‘professional maturity’. We all communicate very well and support each other indefinitely.
• Goals. Our goals are aligned with different supporting plans (plans B, C, D, etc) should we not achieve our targets, but importantly they have been discussed at length and unequivocally agreed by all.
• Physical. We recognise the requirement for physical conditioning that’s representative to the task and support each other’s training, while equally holding each other accountable. Additional importance has been placed on injury proofing our bodies through constructive prehab routines due to the enduring and arduous nature of the challenge.
• Mental. Time is being well spent on our mental resilience involving individual coaching and mentoring, looking at understanding any derailing behaviours and how to combat them. We have several common key phrases that allows each other to understand how we are feeling or to break the ice around a sensitive subject. Our individual and team strategies are shared, discussed, practised and again, supported by all.
• Trust. The final one to I wish to share is invaluable to informing the success of these conditions and that’s trust. We must develop this as much as possible to really influence the outcome of all the combined training.
This list is certainly not exhaustive, naturally these components are best developed within each other in mind and not in isolation. However, it is worth noting that none of these components work without commitment, support and mutual respect.
We are supported, individually and collectively, by our chosen coaches/mentors from one of our Platinum sponsors ‘Made to Measure Mentoring Ltd’. We are challenged regularly (in a good way) and are given the opportunity to grow as individuals. As a reflectionist I find this time invaluable for keeping me honest in my quest to enable the right conditions for team success.
Ultimately, we recognise that this challenge is perceived as 20% physical and 80% mental. However, I would be as bold to suggest it’s more appropriately 20% physical, 50% mental and 30% teamwork (a combination of people, trust, commitment, resolve and support).
I have been watching this challenge for years and waiting for the perfect time to attempt it, that time is now, without a doubt. Why……… we have a synergy that is irreplaceable.
This is our ‘how’ - or maybe even the creation of a blue print for ‘how to.....’