Eddie O'Sullivan - Irish Rugby Coach.

Went to a dinner that had Eddie O'Sullivan as the guest speaker last night, it's great to have speakers of this profile in Sligo rather than having to go to Dublin or beyond to hear them. Eddie was practical, practical to a fault, there is no doubt that his analytical tools are right up to date, but there was no mention whatsoever last night of creativity, motivation was taken as a given (which it most certainly is not, even at top level sport) and I got the distinct impression that the real deal was in the stuff Eddie was not telling us at all. Of course I don't blame the man for that, he had a business audience who wanted to see and hear practical management principles, goal setting, strategic planning, key performance indicators, performance analysis and appraisals. I was more interested in what he thinks it will take to move Irish Rugby on to the next level, where the edge is, and how he intends to get there. Nick Faldo once said that no one is that good that they can't get better, but it's hard to perform if all you ever do is focus on your weaknesses, the Irish rugby squad has some wonderful strengths, Brian O'Driscolls genius, Geordan Murphys creativity, Shane Byrnes mullet, but under this system there seems to be more emphasis on damage limitation than exposure of brilliance, perhaps this is Eddie's strategy, get the basic patterns right and then let it flow, I'm looking forward to seeing the "flowing" bit if and when Eddie or someone else lets it out.

It's a bit of a quiet day today for me, what with being up late last night, and having had such a brilliant week at work, I'm kinda easing into the weekend. Thanks to all the people at CIPD north west for a great night -

I'd like to see a bit more PASSION.

Cheers