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For the foreseeable we’re plunged into the world of the Cross of St George, beer bellies and bad language.
The ‘beautiful-game’ is back in our lives, like it or not, and…
… I’m writing this on Wednesday morning and later today England are taking on what looks like the BMA, their team captain... Dr Congo? Good luck!
I try to avoid sporting metaphors… but maybe there’s something…can we extract some sense from it… what it can teach us?
Starting with the manager.
The Football Association was brave to appoint a German to manage England! But…
…Thomas Tuchel arrived with a formidable track record.
Since 2007 he’s won just shy of 60% of his matches in all competitions. About the same as Sir Alex Ferguson. Not as good as Guardiola, who hovers around 72%, nor Zidane, nor Mourinho, but…
… Guardiola has spent much of his career managing squads that cost more than some countries. Ferguson sustained his numbers over more than two decades.
Context matters, and there’s a more interesting question.
Does success come from tactical sophistication or from continuity, culture and relationships?
The former England manager, Gareth Southgate (60%), suggests the latter matters more than people expected.
Some of the NHS's most successful leaders; Sir Andrew Morris at Frimley Park, Sir Jim Mackey in the North East would agree their achievements were not built solely on structures and strategies. They were built on relationships, trust, culture and consistency, and…
… the games…
… England seem determined to give us a heart attack in the first half and then half-time...
...a few slices of orange, the whiff of Deep Heat and a ‘conversation’ with the manager in the dressing room… the second half is transformed.
What does Tuchel say? We know what he said in the Croatia game.
By all accounts it wasn't a long speech. Nor was it a hairdryer treatment. Reports suggest he told them something like:
‘If we lose, we lose in our way. Get the shackles off. What's the worst that can happen?’
He challenged the team about ‘protecting a result they didn't yet have’. Reminded them; ‘play the football you’ve had spent seventeen days practising.’
Importantly, he didn't berate them. Set them targets (!)…
He reset them. Changed the frame, and that’s one of the most important leadership skills of all.
Speeches that change history are rarely the most eloquent. They’re the ones that give people permission to think differently.
Churchill’s; ‘We shall fight on the beaches’ speech, reframed retreat. He persuaded a nation that survival wasn’t failure. He gave people a story they could inhabit.
Kennedy’s; ‘Ask not what your country can do for you’ speech reversed the relationship between citizen and state. It transformed people from consumers into contributors.
Martin Luther King’s; ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, didn’t just describe a problem. It described a future. He invited people to imagine a different America, before it existed.
The speeches followed the same pattern.
- Acknowledge reality.
- Offer a new frame.
- Give people permission to act differently.
People rarely change because they are given more information.
They change when someone gives them a different story... about themselves.
So, it’s half-time in the NHS dressing room, what would you say?
‘Work harder. Do more with less. Here’s ten targets. We need transformation.’
No, no, no.
Remind people who they are;
‘You are highly trained people doing work that matters… and that means, you matter because…
…every day you will touch lives, restore dignity, ease pain, create memories and, occasionally, save a life.'
Some of you will do it at the bedside.
Some of you will do it by making sure there is a bed.
Some of you will do it by organising clinics, balancing budgets, cleaning wards, repairing equipment, answering phones or paying suppliers.
All of you matter. You matter to each other. Every role counts.
'Now go and do what you've spent years learning to do, because today you will stay in the memory of the people you meet. How you made them feel.
Go and create some wonderful memories.
They’ll last a lifetime.’
Leaders don’t hand out instructions. They hand out permission…
… permission to believe, to trust each other, to be the people they already are.
The NHS doesn't need another transformation programme.
It needs more people in the dressing room...
... reminding us why we came to play.
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