This week’s word is: courage. One of the skills I’ve been studying as part of the skill set of the 21st century work floor. Red Bull Racing deciding to put on hard tyres for Q2 was bold, and based on what was known about tyre performance, could possibly cost them dearly. It is a great example of courage. But they knew that if any driver could pull it off, it would be Max. And they didn’t have that much to lose, considering last week’s race (a.k.a. Max in no-man’s land). So they went with it.
But the most courageous moment in my opinion was the board radio between Max and his race engineer, GP.
Max took a risk, promised he was being sensible about it, and his team TRUSTED him. There is a lot of talk in organizations about the need for risk taking to drive innovation. But risk taking requires trust. One cannot happen without the other. Max showed courage in taking this (calculated) risk and his team showed courage in trusting him to pull it off. And boy, did he!