London 2012 built an organisation which grew to around 6,000 employees at Games time, with approximately 100,000 contractors and 70,000 Games Makers. This is a massive challenge for organisers when you consider the rate of change over a relatively short period.


Building a skilled, agile and engaged team, under the right structures, is key, but the demands of the programme require outstanding leadership to be successful. A common characteristic of many of the leaders of the London 2012 partner organisations was their ability to focus almost exclusively on what mattered: delivery. United by a strong vision, they were able to avoid many of the common pitfalls typically experienced in a programme of this complexity. Their leadership filtered downwards into their organisations and fostered a "can-do" attitude".

Cities or countries hosting or bidding for future Games or other major sporting events should consider some of the following points as they build teams and provide effective leadership:

1. Avoid surprises further down the line by including people who really understand how operations work in the early stages of planning. Project management experts and operators often do not speak the same language – this can result in well-developed plans which do not work in practice.

2. Consider recruiting broad skillsets to be flexibly deployed in support of specific requirements and encourage mobility within the project to get more out of the best talent and to enhance careers. Too often the potential of the most experienced people with is limited by organisational silos.

3. Align performance management to the pace of the project. Good practice processes and tools typically seen in a corporate environment may be right for the early stages, but will slow down reward or conversations around poor performance in the final stretch.


4. Consider recruitment from a range of sources including school leavers, voluntary positions, secondments and placements. Working on an Olympic Games may be a once in a lifetime opportunity and a treasured addition to any CV. Host cities can build a diverse, skilled workforce and reduce costs by thinking differently about how they recruit.

5. As well as helping identify issues to be fixed, use testing to help build confidence in people – from those on the floor of a venue to senior executives in operations centres – focus on the routine activities which people will experience on day one as well as less-likely crisis scenarios.

In many ways, London 2012 set a new benchmark for Games preparations – delivering the right people strategies were a cornerstone of this success. Future host cities have an excellent example to follow.

Download the Deloitte report, Lessons from London 2012: Programme leadership, on the ground, here.

Tim Parr is the lead partner for programme leadership and major events at Deloitte