Connecting the dots, given constraints and conflicts, financial constraints count as limited resources. Decision making and goal setting are providing a searching examination of almost everyone holding leadership, policy making, administrative and managerial responsibility. Some find it easier than others.
But at the end of the day, it’s a broad spectrum of considerations connecting the dots.
How do we move forward? Sport is in a unique position. There are no recessionary imperatives inherent to sport. People still want to participate in some form or fashion. Sport matters. The interest in sport is growing.
Capturing that interest and translating it to sustainable growth is the problem. The opportunities are out there in abundance. How can those opportunities be leveraged?
Time has moved on. What on the face of it seemed a sensible solution, given the passage of time, don’t seem to make sense. But as if we are locked into a vortex, we continue to see the problem and solutions as if 2017 is 2007 or 1997.
Madness! Sheer utter madness!
But who cares? Appearing to be working diligently on the problem is more the priority than trying to create actionable relevant solutions.
Recently, I had a discussion with a forward thinking local coach who made the observation that a Things That Matter column done some years ago, with Dunning-Kruger as the topic, should be repeated if only to serve as a reminder of what the root cause of the malaise may be.
Certainly Dunning-Kruger may be at play. But it could also be as simple as being honest or open-minded.
How do we change the perception that we are going nowhere fast?
We keep repeating the same mistakes ad nauseam, making the same excuses, repeating the same conversations over and over.
Why do we feel, sincerely so at that, that we can talk our way out of difficult challenges? Why do we continue to delude ourselves? What is it? Good sense no longer makes sense? How do we put a stop to the insanity?
Wasting financial resources is one thing, but wasting human resources is even worse. We have too much talent and potential in T&T.
While it’s true that we have the constraint of limited finance, the financial constraint is counter-balanced by an abundance of talented human resources.
The opportunity is in embracing and focusing on our individual and collective wisdom and creativity.
Stop selling ourselves short.
• Brian Lewis is the President of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee and the Trinidad and Tobago Commonwealth Games Association. The views expressed aren’t necessarily those of the TTOC and TTCGA.