Blog by Rapid Results Director Tony Burnet
Continuing on my sporting theme, I thought it interesting to reflect on the demise of English cricket at the expense of our own rampant Black Caps. The English were woeful, we were magnificent. Yet a series of events over the last twelve months could quite easily have reversed the result.
Let’s look at team management and culture within the team.
As a company are you wanting to be more like England or New Zealand?
Two years ago the English team were arguably the best in the world with an outstanding captain in Alistair Cook and a number of brilliant batsmen – most notably the mercurial Kevin Peitersen. What happened? Cook lost form, the media savaged him and despite the old adage “form is temporary, class is forever”, was dumped for a captain with a very modest record. Peitersen was involved in off field incidents and “mutiny within the side” – so he too was exited despite still being a match-winner.
New Zealand two years ago were the easy beats of cricket. They had internal strife with the McCullum / Taylor leadership issue and a coach unproven at this level. They also had the on-going Jesse Ryder saga not dissimilar to Kevin Peitersen.
Whilst England disintegrated in this time, New Zealand rebuilt. They managed the change of captaincy with dignity, they signalled to Ryder that the team ethos was changing. In other words: “Change the people, or change the people”.
Let’s draw a comparison with business – we all have outstanding staff members who perform well for themselves but don’t fit into the company culture. What are we to do with them?
Do we take the English approach and remove them at the expense of company performance? Or do we, as New Zealand has done, man manage our team members and create a new culture that people will want to be a part of, but with a view on retaining our temperamental stars?
In essence Taylor and company are all part of the team and it’s unified. Ryder must be thinking he was given the chance but couldn’t change. Despite what he says publicly he must regret his ill-discipline and demons.
So, as a company are you wanting to be more like England or New Zealand?
I know with creating the right environment and nurturing the individuals to be part of a champion team you too can improve your business.
It may sometimes be rocky, but it’s a journey worth taking.
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