The rugby world cup and change management

I wanted to talk about 2 of my passions being rugby union and change management. Having been lucky enough to witness an England RWC victory back in 2003 (like I needed to remind people of when) it is interesting to draw direct comparisons between successful delivery in a sporting context against successful delivery in business.

The first element to mention is “culture” and something that I am sure the 2003 vintage spoke a lot about and which the management team drew on heavily in the early goal setting and vision stage of the project. I know the goal from the less successful 1999 world cup effort from Sir Clive was clearly to be measured on the following world cup by his sponsor (The RFU) and hence the goal setting had clear timescales and the culture and capability changes could start to take shape.

I am not in a position to comment on the culture that existed in 1999 versus that of 2003 but I can be sure that the management team during that period took full accountability to own the change and address any issues with it. The team was in a privileged position in that it had a number of leaders in its ranks that had a winning mentality, valuable experience and had been in pressure environments previously at the pinnacle of the game. I see many times where a business wants to change, has the enthusiasm and energy to do so but that the culture may not be fully conducive to adapt and evolve….which is where the England team had an advantage in that the management team took full accountability and ownership for the culture and was open to work with the team to change and where the team had positive role models, strong leadership and mentality to make it happen.

It was certainly no accident that the team went on a successful winning run in the build up to the world cup and although the performances during the world cup were not maybe up to the same standard as other pre-tournament matches the team had a bond, culture and mentality that was unbreakable, knowing how not to lose was hard wired into the fabric of the team. This is a fine example of how the business can adopt a strong culture and buy in to change management that becomes part of your identity and sets you up for success.

It is also worth noting that post world cup the management team also made a brave decision when the environment was not set up for success to continue and a decision was made to stop the project. This was a brave decision with wide reaching consequences but again much can be taken from this approach into business and sometimes saying “no” is the right answer to halt a project if the culture, capability and delivery environment is not right.

 

In my opinion you can change all the policies and processes you like, but if you don’t get the culture and relationships right then success will be limited and not sustained.

 

People Change Projects