“Will it make the boat go faster?” is a question that helped change the life and the sporting success of Ben Hunt-Davis MBE.

Although Ben is now an Olympic Gold medallist and renowned performance consultant, success in the rowing boat hadn’t always come as frequently for Ben as you may have thought. By his own admission, Ben had underachieved on the Olympic and World Championship stage for the first years of his career. It was on a drunken night out, after another disappointing performance, that Ben and his crew agreed that something needed to change.

In 1998, they decided to construct their new training regime around the question of ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’. They asked themselves that simple question before every action they took in the lead up to the Sydney Olympics. The strategy - with an evidence-based approach - allowed the team to see improvements within months. So much so that, Ben’s crew won gold at Sydney 2000, and stood atop of the podium as Olympic champions.

Will It Make The Boat Go Faster is now the name of Ben’s consultancy which is enlisted by companies across the world to help them reach high performance. The strategy has been written into sporting folklore and is trusted by the likes of Clive Woodward showing that it is applicable to any sport. It can also be applied to business or everyday life, and Ben explains that all you have to do is identify what your 'crazy goal' is and understand what the question is that you need to ask yourself to achieve that goal.

What shone through in our conversation with Ben was just how honest you have to be – with yourself and others – in order to achieve your goals. He also explained how having clarity about what the goal is, can propel a team towards success. 

As Ben suggests, whatever your ‘boat’ may be, why do anything that doesn’t make it go faster.

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out Ben's website www.willitmaketheboatgofaster.com and read his book Will It Make The Boat Go Faster.