Eating soup with a knife

Much has been made of culture recently; we hear it cited using negative connotations in reports of our incarceration system and with a more favourable tone when discussing successful sports teams.  There is an excellent book entitled ‘legacy’ which deals with cultural issues within the All Blacks Rugby Union team and how it has helped them achieve unparalleled success on the field. What the latter demonstrated was the importance of consistency in staff, or to broaden to the wider business community, decision makers.  This is a luxury rarely permitted within sport and perhaps why, especially in football, few clubs succeed in developing their own unique culture.

A culture is something that should permeate an organisation; it should be able to be articulated by those at every level and function; it should go beyond what I would consider basic manners and set the tone for how its proponents are viewed by each other and the outside world [On point 2 above I get frustrated when sports teams are lauded for ‘sweeping out the sheds’ or essentially, cleaning up their own mess, something that is expected, although increasingly unenforced, amongst young children].  Cultures are not created overnight, certainly not those that go deeper than a fancy headline or marketing slogan.  Cultures that unify groups of individuals toward a shared and common goal are years in the making, a timeframe rarely experienced by managers in professional sport and in some cases big business. In situations where new managers are perceived to have little time to achieve such a sea change within their organisation they may face a threat far greater than inertia; quiet rebellion.

To take an example from football, a new manager inherits staff from their predecessor, both players, coaches and support staff.  With a relatively small window of opportunity to deliver success they must ensure that every person within their wider team understands what they are trying to achieve and more importantly, the tactics by which they will pursue this end.  Outside observers may consider the most important group from which support must be garnered to be the playing staff; whilst I wouldn’t disagree, the impact of back room staff who are not supportive of the new regime should not be overlooked.  The logistics of organising a team are very similar to many businesses.  There are uniform requirements (kit), logistical considerations (travel), organisational (administrative and alike), end product (tactics and strategy) to name but a few, all tasks undertaken by the support staff whom the manager must develop a close and effective working relationship with.  How the manager wins their support, cooperation and trust may be one of the most important tasks in the early days of assuming control.

The skills required to achieve this are subtle; people need to feel secure in their role but also challenged to improve wherever possible; communication channels need to be open and effective; a clear objective, strategy and tactics should be made clear; and a fair review system developed.  Whilst the new manager may be met with suspicion upon entering the organisation (especially when their predecessor was well liked) approaching a potentially rebellious group in an aggressive and/or combative way should be avoided.  To quote Lawrence of Arabia, ‘to make war upon rebellion is messy and slow, like eating soup with a knife’.  As frustrating as a lack of support for your ultimate objective may be, confrontation is rarely an effective strategy.

In football as in many businesses we have a culture of ‘easy come, easy go’; this is epitomised by the recent reports of would be managers openly discussing their dealings with a club who already have an individual in the post they are linked with.  Such an open lack of support for the incumbent makes managing staff even more difficult, especially for managers who have employees that would rather see the back of them.  If football clubs (and businesses) want to see a culture change in their organisations they would do well to start at the top and allow individuals a sufficient degree of time to achieve the targets they have been set.  Without such a mandate managers may find it increasingly difficult to garner the support of their staff and prevent being overcome and perhaps overthrown by a rebellious miniroty.