As the year draws to a close the nation seems to be looking for crumbs of comfort in a difficult economic environment.

In gives us an opportunity to look back at moments that took away the gloom, none more so than the Olympics.

At The Hill Tribe, we have also been reflecting on what Olympic success has taught us about training and development.

As a trainer, the Olympics made me think more about winning combinations. Watching the many athletes of ‘Team GB’, parading their medals, encouraged me to consider how the attitude and application of the trainee, combined with the right intervention of the trainer/coach, can deliver results.

The GB medallists, by sheer virtue of their success, epitomised this.

But watching the athletes interviewed at, and following, the Games, I felt slightly uncomfortable with the idea that, with determination and sacrifice – often on the part of the parents of athletes as well as themselves – anything was possible. The reason I am uncertain of this is because I can’t believe that in Atlanta, where Team GB won few medals, we did not have enough individuals who were determined enough to succeed.

What London 2012 did reveal was that the mix of potential, the application of the athletes, skilful training and supportive localised institutions ALL contribute. So the Government, the National Lottery and the intelligent distribution of funds were all pivotal in this success.

That’s why the Hill Tribe makes the understanding of organisational culture central to the success of any training programme. In fact, you might have to instil a sense of personal resourcefulness in the trainees so that they can influence and help change a negative and unsupportive organisational culture.

Without doing so, whatever the training is, improvements might be hard to come by, just as the British hopefuls in Atlanta could not rely on attitude and application alone. I hope that is a lesson we can all realise more of in 2013.