Lessons learnt from Team New Zealand...

Sailing technology has changed dramatically.

The big takeaway from Team New Zealand [who just won the 36th America's Cup] is truly startling. The Kiwis had the latest sailing technology on their boat. They have successfully innovated hydrofoil sailing to a point where these boats can exceed the current wind speed by at least a factor of two. Imagine sailing a boat that can sail at least twice as fast as the wind is blowing with speeds up to thirty, forty, and fifty knots. And so the lesson we can learn from Team New Zealand is that current sailing technology is way ahead of the ability of the sailors to manage it. Simply put, I guess, the old sailing technology [see photo] taught us habits that can be counter-productive to our needs when we go foil sailing today.

Team New Zealand showed us what it takes to be at the cutting edge. It had a workplace of one hundred and fifty people who all had a role to play. Each role changed constantly as the sailing crew struggled to "tame" the technological beast they used as their racing platform. It took them right up until the tenth race in a thirteen race series to really get to sail their boat anywhere near the level that it could have reached in their first outing. There is the key lesson to learn from this great Team; the technology in the contemporary workplace is way outside the range of skills which most people possess at present. For example, in many workplaces the culture is still based on analogue habits whereas the marketplace has embraced digital technology such as Apple Pay, etc. This technology lag means that there is no designated design group within most work spaces as there was for Team New Zealand. And this means that either the technology has the workers running around in circles or the current workforce is limiting the scope and reach of the existing team.

What can you do about this technology gap in your current workplace. You can hire a design team. You can harness the full range of productivity available to you from your current work platform. You can cut ties with past banking practices. You can become as innovative and as agile as Team New Zealand in adapting your work habits to those that will best suit the new technologies of our times.

Richard.