Bronze-Silver-Gold at Work

May 5, 2020

The beauty and story behind the creation of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic medals reminded me of the significance and symbolism of the bronze-silver-gold triad in athletic competitions.

Just a thought: apply the same symbolism for excellence and winning at work. For example, where there are corporate-wide excellence standards at your company, set bronze-silver-gold performance qualification metrics.

If not corporate-wide, then apply to teams or job sites. And, in those cases, make the award for degree of metrics desired, not team-against-team or job site versus job site.

The idea is to enroll everyone in excellence. It’s more about striving to live up to high standards for everyone … company-wide.

In this scenario my belief is that no one will be satisfied to be the bronze winners; gold will always be pursued and treasured. This is not particularly revolutionary, but consider setting up an “Acme Quality Olympiad” complete with pre-designed bronze-silver-gold mementos. 

Just the historical bronze-silver-gold cache brings an inherent validity that attracts winning behavior. Customize yours with your unique criteria, theme and presentation celebrations …  at least annually. And with C-Level executive endorsement and top-billing at your celebration event.

In case you are as interested in the Tokyo medal story as I am, here are a few highlights:

 Tokyo 2020 Medal Design:  

  • The medal design was won by Junichi Kawanishi from more than 400 entries from professional designers and design students.
  • The IOC design criteria: must include the iconic five rings, the official name of the games and the Greek Goddess of Victory Nike in front of the Panathinaikos Stadium.
  • The base metal for all of the 5,000 Olympic and Paralympic medals was refined from 78,825 tons of gadgets including 6.21 million mobile phones, donated by Japanese citizens over a two-year period.
  •  The gold medal is silver with a heavy 6 gm. plating of gold.
  •  Watch this …