Interview with Mauro Bergamasco and Andrea Rizzi
Can sport be a functional and profitable metaphor also at work?
We discover it together with Mauro Bergamasco (rugby player – educator and experiential trainer) and Andrea Rizzi (managerial consultant and trainer) of INNER, who accompanied the Incide Team during a training course of organizational evolution.
There are now many examples of personalities from the world of sport who are called upon to bring their testimony and experience within training courses or company conventions. Why is this still so requested and sought after?
Leaving aside the attraction to the spectacular and notoriety strongly present in the world of sport, what is really winning in the sport-work combination is the presence of some elements that unite these two experiences intensely present in our lives. The preparation and the method, the training and the effort, the challenge and the confrontation, the team and the opponents, the defeat and the victory; these elements, so evidently present in the world of sport, are instead conceived in the working context in a completely different way.
An example above all: in sport it is well known and shared that training, effort, method, continuous exercise are necessary to obtain a high level performance; are we sure that in our working context this precondition is equally evident for everyone? How many of us can really say that in their work they continue to train and prepare with constant method and commitment?
Sport helps us review what we face in our working life with a magnifying glass so powerful that it makes us grasp even those small details that we often miss in our daily lives.
So here is the sporting metaphor to our rescue that helps us to remember immediately and directly how important it is to practice, study, deepen, experiment to achieve success and achieve goals.
Sport is movement and movement is a fundamental prerequisite for learning and for the development of the cognitive activities of each individual. Learning and knowledge begin for us from the first minute we come into the world and accompany us until our last breath.
Sport reminds us that if we want to improve our knowledge and our skills we need to move, to compare ourselves, to test ourselves, to struggle and to receive and support the people who face challenges with us.
Talent and Leadership: what are they really, and how can they best flourish?
Usually when we talk about talent, it is associated with the concept of GIFT; an innate characteristic, a personal ability that not everyone possesses, thanks to which we can achieve success, visibility, wealth, power, gratitude.
In reality, the etymological root of talent is TAL, which was originally the weight of the harvest that the peasants carried on their shoulders.
The term talent was therefore associated with a weight. Then it took on the meaning of scales with which silver coins were weighed and at that moment it was transformed into a concept that expresses preciousness. Each of us has his own talent, his own weight to carry that must be transformed into a treasure.
Talent exists in each of us; our task is to discover it and free it, creating the conditions so that it can express itself at its best both in the various personal and working areas.
Knowing how to recognize one’s talent and knowing how to nourish it and make the most of it is one of the most difficult tasks that awaits us.
A task that does not only concern us, but also those who are called to lead teams and people. A good leader is in fact one who manages to maximize the potential and talent of his collaborators, finding the right balance between their expectations and company objectives.
Leadership is also a talent and as such it can be nurtured and strengthened through constant method and application.
The INNER method: how do you help companies get back in shape? The case of INCIDE Engineering
Our approach is based on knowledge and in-depth analysis of the needs of companies and the people who work there.
What’s your strategy? What are the values that distinguish you and unite you? What are the behaviors that you concretely adopt to give life to values? What are the roles and responsibilities within the organization? How do you communicate all this to your collaborators?
These are some of the questions we try to find common answers to together with administrators, managers and team leaders.
Clarity and unity of vision, strong identity of values, transparency in mutual expectations and effectiveness in communication represent the solid pillars on which winning teams are built.
Our aim is to make people reconnect with their values and expectations; this is how we can give new energy and new vigor to the action of the entire organization.
With the INCIDE team we have worked precisely on this: we have identified and redefined the values that define the way people work at INCIDE: passion, professionalism, internationality, innovation, resourcefulness, vision. We then identified the behaviors that allow us to concretely translate these values into our daily actions. Finally, we have seen how it is possible to build professional relationships that are mature, transparent and marked by comparison and continuous growth.
A demanding path, strongly desired by the owners and faced with openness, availability and participation on the part of all; the starting point of a path of personal and professional growth that can contribute to new and important successes for INCIDE Engineering and for the people who work there.
