Building towards a winning state of mind

The traditional and time-honoured approach to creating success in the high performance offshore racing world is to build a fast boat and sail it well. Never has this been more obvious than with the current generation of flying IMOCAs where the freedom within the rules has created a fleet of boats with different performance characteristics.

But behind the scenes, some teams that believe that designing a fast boat and staffing it with the world’s best crew is still not enough. For them, engineering success means creating a winning state of mind as well.
To help achieve this 11th Hour Racing Team hired psychologist Anje Marijcke van Boxtel to work with the team.

“A large part of my work is coaching boardroom teams and executives in large corporate companies,” she explained. “But I became involved in the professional sailing world when Bouwe Bekking got in touch with me before the start of the Volvo Ocean Race back in 2014. Obviously, Bouwe is a very experienced skipper, but he had concerns about how best to communicate and select the under 30 year old crew members that were required to be a part of the team under the rules so he asked me for advice on how to set up the process.”

The collaboration worked and was the first in a relationship that continued into the next race in 2017-18 and where Anje Marijcke came to the attention of several other teams.

After a promising start to the race Bekking’s Team Brunel delivered two poor performances mid-way around the world. Morale was low and the team was struggling to see a way of climbing back up the results. But after a second low point in Auckland, NZ and with no major changes to the boat itself, the team went on to win the next leg into Brazil.

The big change? Mindset.

“I was the first mental coach in The Ocean Race so it was unknown territory,” continued Anje Marijcke. “For people who are not accustomed to working with psychologists, it can be very threatening. I often get asked, can you see in my brain, do you know what I'm thinking?

“When I started I said to Bouwe and the crew, you are responsible for the sailing and I'm only responsible for the mental processes. But I did take time to watch how the sailors performed on the boat, you have to, to see how they communicate, where they get stuck, where they collaborate, where their fears are and where the opportunities lie. It’s the same in the boardroom, the process starts with observation.

“When I worked with Bouwe and Andrew Cape, Andrew was in charge of the navigation and because he was out of the watch system, when he slept most of the crew didn't know about the weather, tactics or strategy. So Capey put all data about the weather forecast or whatever on their phones so that they could see the thinking. From there they would know the scenarios for the next 24 hours and were able to offer opinions which led to more collective intelligence.

“On the IMOCA with just four on the boat we agreed on a principle of open communication, share the data don't sit on it. So, we started with SiFi using a whiteboard so when he was off watch the others all knew the data.

“The next stage on the next leg we didn't use the whiteboard anymore. Instead, we forced each other to ask SiFi questions.

“It sounds obvious but there is subtle difference between asking questions and challenging someone’s knowledge. What we’re trying to achieve by asking questions is to utilise the mental resources and experience that we have to achieve greater intelligence. But that means having an open mindset.

“Whether you are trimming, helming or whatever, there is collective intelligence in a team you are building, which is more than individual intelligence. And the only way to build collective intelligence is to talk, to ask questions, to provoke. So, the process developed from SiFi explaining things to the whiteboard, to have a constant conversations about it.

“But it’s not just in the sailing team where we built this process, we developed it in the broader team too.

“Each time the sailors came ashore there was already a job list that had come from the boat before they had arrived at the dock. The process would normally start with a big meeting in which the sailors talked through what was broken and what they wanted to be built on the boat.

“But from research we know many big boat sailors can be more introvert than extrovert and the technical crew are the same, the conversations weren’t really happening in that environment so we broke down the big meeting into small meetings.

“What we do now is we have a number of smaller more focussed meetings with the sailors, and say the electrical engineer, the sail makers or other specialist areas. By discussing how an item broke and what was happening at the time the tech team are able to understand and propose new solutions for problems rather than just fixing the item. And that is how we end with new intelligence and new knowledge.

“And that is what I see happening in boardrooms too. In the old days you might be responsible for say the Americas and you have to talk it through with the CEO. But in the back of your mind if you know you have screwed things up you’ll be worried that the person that did a great job in Europe would get the pay rise. Today in this highly competitive, globalised world, we need to work with each other more closely to achieve a common goal. I may know something about the European market that could help you and the other way around.

“But this is really difficult to do because our brains prefer to sail the oceans in a team of clones, people who think, decide, behave, dress the way like we do because the comfort of knowing we react in the same way is our protection. But the trouble is, this way you restrict yourself to limited intelligence.

“We had a situation in Brazil when we had a new sailor in our crew, a very nice guy, very respectful guy. I asked him to ask SiFi a lot of questions. I don't care how stupid they are, I said, but SiFi loves to be questioned because then his brain is challenged and works at a higher level. And SiFi has a growth mindset, he wants to learn and develop, he loves it. But the guy I asked looked at me and said, 'I'm not really in a position to question Sifi'.

“I'm not saying you have to question him, I replied, but ask him questions, tickle his brain help his brain work for it in a high, higher level.

“Another example is Justine Mettraux who knows a lot about navigation because she is also a solo sailor. At times her ideas might seem unconventional, weird or brave ideas, so for Sifi it's a wonderful opportunity to test those ideas and hold them against data to try it all. But if you don't have a growth mindset it doesn’t work.

“We see this kind of approach at a very early age. Kids in high school who flunk a test and get rid of the test, don't tell at home and never have a look at it as opposed to those who go to the teacher and say, Hey, what happened over here? I made a mistake but I haven't got a clue what I did wrong. Explain it to me.

“This is the difference between fixed and growth mindsets.

“The process takes time though and it is good to get in early because what you need to do with athletes is get their trust first. Once you get their trust that you're helping them to reach for their aims they let you in on everything, way more than in normal organisations.

“So being there in time is good. Growing communication, growing better collaboration between tech and sailor logistics, along with developing leadership from the management can all be done before the race.

“Having experienced the turnaround with Bouwe in the 2017-18 race a similar thing happened to us at 11th Hour Racing Team during this event when we came into Brazil when the scoreboard wasn't as good as we expected it to be. And it’s moments like that, that as mental coach you have way more room, metaphorically and literally to work with the team. Poor results create urgency and it’s this that makes us more prepared to step out of our comfort zones. Sometimes it is as stark as reminding ourselves that we have to think big or outside the normal boundaries because we don’t have anything to lose.

“When you start early with a team and people trust you and so you are able to stretch comfort zones. But to really make a big courageous out of your comfort zone experimenting step always needs urgency.

“Overall, what I do is not just sports psychology, it is growing personal leadership and growing teams.”