A young Canadian upstart won the US Open Tennis Tournament this weekend beating Serena Williams. It was a huge win for her and for Canadian tennis all around. In the post match interviews and analysis, one of the things repeatedly coming up is the role of meditation and visualisation in Bianca’s daily training routine.

This practice is not unique to Bianca as meditation and visualisation has become a standard part of most professional athletes and teams. The visualisation is not a bunch of dashboards on a screen, but rather a mental exercise of visualising in your mind different scenarios during a match of how you and your opponent react to different shots etc.

In the world of data, digital, change, and leadership this ‘preparation’ can occur as well. We already do it in some situations – think scenario planning in strategy development or financial and data modelling. However, few of us have it as part of our standard daily routines; it’s haphazard at best. If we do it, it is often limited to a one-off in our planning cycles; most scenario plans are rarely continually developed and thought of, focus is on the ‘most-likely’ one.

What would our days, our projects look like if we as individuals or with our teams practiced daily visualisation of upcoming conversations, decisions, interactions, presentations, and so on. Would our engagements improve? I don’t know but it’s likely worth a shot. The choice is up to you.

And congratulations Bianca!

Photo by Ben Hershey