{"id":1522,"date":"2016-07-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/knight-rider\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:47","slug":"knight-rider-sir-dave-brailsford-creating-winning-environment","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/knight-rider-sir-dave-brailsford-creating-winning-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Knight Rider"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Jul 04, 2016 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Knight Rider<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Leadership & Culture<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/knight-rider-sir-dave-brailsford-creating-winning-environment\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n
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Sir Dave Brailsford on Creating a Winning Environment.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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Sir Dave Brailsford knows what it takes to win. Under his stewardship Team Sky have won three of the last four Tours de France and are well-placed to challenge for the overall title again this year.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never won a Tour de France and I\u2019m not going to win a Tour de France. I can\u2019t do the thing I get judged on,\u201d he says. \u201cSo all I can do is actually think how I can become an expert at helping and supporting people to be the best they can be. I spend 80 per cent of my time thinking about the human aspect of what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London in 2015 Brailsford delivered an insight into his work creating a winning environment at Team Sky. The team\u2019s approach breaks down into three\u00a0key areas:<\/p>\n

1. Performance strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n

2. Creating an optimised performance environment<\/strong><\/p>\n

3. Continuous improvement<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Performance Strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Goal harmony<\/strong><\/p>\n

No matter how talented a team is, it will fail if its team members do not have a singular vision that complements personal ambitions. Brailsford prioritises what he calls \u2018goal harmony\u2019: \u201cIf you can get everybody behind a goal then you may achieve some team harmony, but if you focus on having a harmonious team first, without being clear about where you will get that goal harmony then I don\u2019t think your performance will be optimal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about having the right alignment of individual aspirations and it\u2019s about setting out individual projects and seeing them as discrete events.\u201d<\/p>\n

Self versus self-sacrifice<\/strong><\/p>\n

The discrete goals of riders at Team Sky are rooted in the balance of self and self-sacrifice. \u201cA lot of guys in our sport sacrifice their own chance to enable somebody else to be successful and you\u2019ll hear all this talk about him being a team player, putting his aspirations to one side for the benefit of the team.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s the concept of current self versus future self and is something to think about when aligning people to a current goal. That is how we try to get that alignment.\u201d<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t do that \u2013 that\u2019s not how people are. They\u2019re always thinking \u2018what\u2019s in it for me?\u2019 We have to recognise that people will think about themselves, they will want their own opportunities and will contemplate the idea of what they are willing to sacrifice now if they are to receive an opportunity in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the concept of current self versus future self and is something to think about when aligning people to a current goal. That is how we try to get that alignment.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Creating the right environment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Optimising the opportunity to perform<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI think you win first and develop a culture.\u201d It was Team Sky\u2019s victories at the 2012 and 2013 Tours de France enabled Brailsford and his staff to establish a framework for their performance environment heading forward. \u201cIt is very much about the human. I\u2019m not talking about a rider or a member of staff, I\u2019m just thinking about humans and how you can create environments that optimise a human\u2019s opportunity to perform at the best of their ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recruiting to Team Sky\u2019s values<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sensible recruitment is a fundamental component of Team Sky\u2019s cultural environment. \u201cFirstly, you have to identify what it is you\u2019re trying to recruit. We spend a lot of time thinking if there is a particular skill or function that we would like somebody to come in with. Do we want a future winner of the Tour de France? Do you want someone to come in and support the team? Do we want someone to come in and lead our physiology department? You have to be really clear in terms of what you are looking for. We tend to look at knowledge, skills, experience and behaviour. I will create a big chart and look at those attributes.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody will have a different profile but behaviour is pretty important. If it\u2019s a staff member and they can\u2019t find into the Team Sky way, as it were, then it\u2019s going to fail regardless of the knowledge and skills they\u2019ve got. From a rider\u2019s point of view, behaviour is important but if you haven\u2019t got the talent then you aren\u2019t going to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Onboarding<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept of onboarding is important to us. I don\u2019t like the term but I do like the thinking behind it. This year we hired some talented riders and thought about how the speed of their integration will have an impact on how they are going to be able to perform. So we have to sit back and work out how we can fast track somebody into the team. Do we just let it happen or is there any intervention we can look at?\u201d<\/p>\n

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We looked for our positive attributes and decided that this is what we stand for, behaviours we look to embody. The main ones are: managing self, then it\u2019s about performance, communication and continuous improvement.<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Brailsford explains that the framework for interventions often comes through Team Sky\u2019s accepted behaviours. \u201cLike many people, we have identified what we think our behaviours are. We looked for our positive attributes and decided that this is what we stand for, behaviours we look to embody. The main ones are: managing self, then it\u2019s about performance, communication and continuous improvement.<\/p>\n

Winning and losing behaviours<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cUnderneath that we develop certain phrases that represent, identify and fit in those areas. If it\u2019s 11.30pm on a cold night, you\u2019re tired, the mechanics are tired, they\u2019ve got to get the bikes right for a big day tomorrow. We were late coming in, we were on a big stage and there is a bit of friction. At that moment in time how do you get that filter, those behaviours or values, to enable a person to think or see those problems through those rather than just what they would normally do? It\u2019s not easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we developed an app to gauge the winning and losing behaviours of our staff. Each day they answer a series of multiple choice questions from an angry emoji to a super happy emoji and I get to see those.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questions require riders and staff to think and include such phrases as \u2018I am in control of my emotions\u2019, \u2018I am consistent and robust\u2019 and \u2018I proactively solve problems\u2019.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a reflective practice to say \u2018you think you\u2019re on a super happy face for all these things you\u2019ve done but you\u2019ve been moaning lately\u2019. If you\u2019re spending a month with somebody as we do then you don\u2019t want someone bringing everyone down. For me that would be a losing behaviour.<\/p>\n

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They\u2019re exhibiting more losing behaviours than winning behaviours we\u2019ll flag it up and give you a chance to modify it. We\u2019ll try to sort it out over time but if you can\u2019t then there\u2019s no place for you in this team. That\u2019s how you bring our culture to life.<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cBut what I think you find is a lot of literature written around the positive aspects of culture, which say \u2018these are the things you should do\u2019 and there is not much written about the things that kill you. The losing behaviours, if you like. I think if you eradicate the things that can make you go down then people can flourish.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe monitor it and if they\u2019re exhibiting more losing behaviours than winning behaviours we\u2019ll flag it up and give you a chance to modify it. We\u2019ll try to sort it out over time but if you can\u2019t then there\u2019s no place for you in this team. That\u2019s how you bring our culture to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Continuous improvements<\/strong><\/p>\n

Searching for bridgeable gaps<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another aspect of the culture is the constant analysis to work out what it takes to keep winning. \u201cThere are more \u2018ologists\u2019 in sport now than we had before so it\u2019s not too difficult to work out,\u201d says Brailsford. \u201cOnce we have got that, look at where we are at, then try to see if it\u2019s a bridgeable gap or not, and if it is we\u2019ll decide what interventions we are going to put in place to optimise the chances of it happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to go forward thinking about what it will take to be successful in the future, because I think we all have a cognitive bias with the moment we are in. So we\u2019re influenced by the challenges, pressures and obstacles of what is holding us back now.\u00a0 I just try to forget everything and take a step into the future, unshackle ourselves from what is going on now and think about what winning looks like in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you work back from there and I think you get a different solution or perhaps a different mindset to try and solve the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we are constantly looking for the small improvements. I\u2019m a big believer in progression rather than perfection. If you set perfection as a goal then I think it\u2019s quite a daunting task: we\u2019re all human, we all fail at times, none of us are robots. But ask someone if they can improve a little bit and 99.9 per cent of people will say \u2018yes\u2019. That becomes motivational. Off we go to make little steps, to accumulate those steps, which then become\u00a0big steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  • Goal harmony. Personal aspirations can be used to develop a unified team vision.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Athletes will be willing to sacrifice their present chances for the sake of the team if presented with future opportunities.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Team Sky recruits according to their winning behaviours and values.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Staff and riders are monitored to see how they embody those winning behaviours and Brailsford will intervene if someone is exhibiting too many losing behaviours.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Team Sky is in constant pursuit of improvement and looks to continuously span \u2018bridgeable gaps\u2019 in performance.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n
    \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Sir Dave Brailsford on Creating a Winning Environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1523,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[20],"pathway":[],"topic":[],"sport":[],"class_list":["post-1522","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership-culture-performance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKnight Rider - Performance Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/knight-rider-sir-dave-brailsford-creating-winning-environment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Knight Rider - Performance Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sir Dave Brailsford on Creating a Winning Environment.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/knight-rider-sir-dave-brailsford-creating-winning-environment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Performance Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-15T05:12:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/Insight-Knight-Rider-Featured-Image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/knight-rider-sir-dave-brailsford-creating-winning-environment\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/knight-rider-sir-dave-brailsford-creating-winning-environment\/\",\"name\":\"Knight Rider - 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