Once again these thoughts have been spurred on by Bob Dwyer - former Australian Rugby Coach.

Here are some extracts from him for you to think about.

Budgets

“When addressing gatherings of business people I often upset them by talking about my distrust of budgets. By budgets, I mean the setting of a certain objective. I hate the idea. I understand that in any investment or endeavour you have to make an assessment of the likely outcome. But I also understand that setting a budget or arbitrary objective is a self-imposed limitation on a team’s performance.”….

Being Our Best

“When I came back to coach the Wallabies in 1988 I knew for certain that if we were going to be successful we had to continually lift our performance right across the board. It occurred to me that there was no numerical goal that we could reach that would identify us as the best team. The All Blacks were the outstanding side of 1987. Logic might dictate that if we set our sights on reaching their standard and then going a bit beyond, then we would be the best team. But what happens if the All Blacks continue to improve in the interim? Chances are we would still be chasing them. The only answer to this conundrum is for us to be as good as we can be. That concept immediately makes everything so much simpler: being our best will probably be good enough anyway; and, in reality, it’s all we can do.”…

Potential

“Now, if we were going to approach our potential, we needed a number of things - but definitely not a budget. You could theorise that if the strongest props in the world can bench press maybe 180 kilograms, then to be world class we had better be bale to match that mark. Can you spot the flaw in that logic? First, we chose our players on what we saw on the paddock. We didn’t want bench-press champions, we wanted rugby players. So, we told our players they would be selected on what we saw them deliver on the playing field.”…

“The no budget edict means that there is no ultimate failure simply because we have not imposed ultimate goals. And it leaves our thinking uncluttered so we can still select on the basis of what we witness on the paddock.”…

Budgets or Limitations

“My question to business people is: Why should we want to impose a limitation on our own performance? A limitation is the easy way. The harder way is by asking : Are we performing well? Are we doing everything we can do to achieve? Are we constantly approaching our potential? By imposing a budget to a limitation, we impede a constant process of examination, support and, most importantly, consistent improvement.”

These are interesting thoughts from a very successful sportsman and coach.