Two Key Learnings From NSW State of Origin
It is with considerable interest that I watch the events post-NSW State of Origin unfold, and try to relate the key learnings and discussions to our role a Leaders.
As someone who was very much involved with Laurie Daley and the NSW State of Origin Program, particularly with respect to the re-alignment of a culture focused on sustained performance, in 2014 and 2015 (I was engaged again in 2016, but had minimal input), I feel I come from a reasonably informed position when relating the key learnings to our business environments.
So – let’s have a look at what I believe are the two key learnings.
Lesson One.The Fundamentals, Culture and Discipline need to be integrated and valued.
For some time now, some of the great thought leaders in team performance in elite sport, including Australia’s own Ray McLean and Kraig Grime, both founders of Leading Teams, have supported the notion that behaviour will drive performance i.e. your sustained performance is inextricably linked to your culture. In fact, some would suggest that teams with strong buy-in to a productive, performance based culture will overcome any short term deficiencies in their fundamentals.
And from my experience, simply put, the behaviour we reward, recognise and tolerate is your culture
Now, whilst great teams value both the fundamentals and the culture, unstoppable teams also behave in a way that suggests they value it. They are disciplined about measuring both and have real conversations about what really matters OFTEN.
It appears that this notion was missing in the last NSW State of Origin campaign. I get a sense that there was appropriate attention given to the game plan, the physical condition of the players, rest, recovery, strategy, logistics – all a part of the fundamentals. I suspect little attention was given to what the purpose of the team is, and which behaviours will be truly valued from each other in order to deliver on this purpose, and the creation of an environment that continually linked performance to these behaviours, including what does it look like at training, post training, pre-training, and the off-field.
Equally importantly - real conversations around who needs rewarding for living these behaviours and who needs help and support.
Some may suggest that attention was only given to this when it was too late! So – it’s a little like reviewing behaviours in the work place once we have missed budgets, rather than as just a part of the normal operating rhythm of the business. Equally, it’s a little like “as long as the sales targets are being met, we must be in good shape”
Learning Two. Changing the culture is NOT the same as sustaining a culture.
In a nutshell, the embedding of a positive, empowering, performance based culture is never finished.
Seeing change in the behaviours that you know are not sustainable, and noticing a shift toward those that add strength to your performance is only the start. By all means get excited, as you are now getting signals that you are on the right track, but understand that now the real work begins!
Again, it appears that the key influencers within the NSW Program felt that the changes that they were noticing in previous campaigns were sufficient to suggest the new culture was well and truly embedded.
There appears to be a number of incidents that suggests this was clearly not so!
SO – let’s do a quick self-check – and I will assume you have all of the Fundamentals in place because, to be honest, my experience suggests this is the easier of the two to establish.
Does your team have:
- clarity and agreement on what their purpose is?
- clarity and agreement on what sustainable success looks like and KPIs (Key Progress Indicators) in place that will initiate real conversations
- clarity on which behaviours will drive and support the achievement of the purpose?
- a safe, productive environment whereby they can have the real conversation about what really matters?