I watched a Horizon programme on self monitoring recently and it reminded me of something I say on most courses I run, “if you aren’t aware of it – you can’t influence it”, or “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”
If you don’t know a customer has a problem, you can’t put it right for them. If you don’t know one of your team members is struggling you can’t help them. If you don’t know there’s a problem with yourself, either physically or mentally, you can’t change what will happen.
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”
One of the astounding things introduced in the programme for me was the England Rugby Sevens squad who are constantly monitored while they train. All sorts of parameters are measured and recorded including heart rate, speed, distance travelled and a host of others. The amazing thing is that all this information means that the Coaches can tell when someone is ill up to 24 hours before they become aware of it themselves! According to one of the Coaches, they have reduced soft tissue injuries in the squad by 80% since using this approach.