Staying motivated

Brendan Venter, coach of an English rubgy team, explained at conference I attended, how important it is to keep motivated, especially in difficult times. This sounds a bit trite but I was interested in the way he explained for a team that is losing, when you get together at half time, the pep talk is important., However, what really matters is the culture of the team that will support their ability to survive the difficulty and to work through it so they engineer some from of success.

Will healthcare systems all over the world going through significant change, I was left wondering how important past and current culture is - so often the word on the organisational street is "we must develop a new culture" - but it may be too late. It is the existing culture that will determine much of the success of tomorrow.

Brendan also mentioned that people on the team need to know what the purpose is of it all. They need to know this for themselves. It is not something that can be issued in a memo. What is it that keeps people coming back to work?  Ultimately, he suggests, it is friendship. There is nothing else.