What business leaders can learn from sports to set their organizations for success?
The parallels between sports and organizational successes are striking. The learning orientation including experimentation, teamwork and execution agility that drive victories on the sports field can be harnessed to achieve remarkable results on the business front.
Success of sports teams depend on key building blocks.
Assembling individuals with complementary skills
Transforming them from talented individuals to a team
Developing strategies and playbooks that play to their strengths and expose the weaknesses of opponents
Communicating effectively in real-time and sharing instant feedback on what's working and what isn't
Refining strategies in real-time and adapting quickly - Strategic Agility (Stragility)
Mindset: Sports teams also have a clear distinction and spend time between learning and performance zones. Learning zone is a state in which a person is engaged in activities that are slightly beyond their current capabilities or knowledge level. Key mindsets that help one learn and grow are embracing discomfort, purposeful practice and seeking feedback. Performance zone is a state in which a person is applying existing knowledge and skills acquired in the learning zone to achieve a goal. In this zone, it's all about execution, showcasing competence and producing tangible results.
Applying these sports insights in a corporate setting across three key areas talent development, business strategy and organizational mindset/culture unleashes peak performance.
Answering key questions will help uncover potential pitfalls.
Do we have the right skills on the team to achieve set goals? Create a skills matrix and assess where the gaps are. Pro tip: Grade the team member skill level - Beginner, Competent, Proficient, Expert. Assess both skill and will.
How do members on the team interact amongst themselves? Check for information flow, conflict resolution approaches and shared commitments. Pro tip: Create guiding principles for decision making and prioritizations.
What actionable and timely feedback mechanisms are in place to help people and the team uncover blindspots and reinforce positive behaviors? Pro tip: Lean more on informal lunch and learn as opposed to After Action Review and Postmortems. Just those words creates defensiveness.
How is the team empowered to make decisions (without having to go up and down a chain of command) that accelerate the initiative? Pro tip: Implement OKRs and guiding principles
What support including access to external experts and internal workshopping is in place to help the team learn and grow? Pro tip: Create a expert network that can be tapped into easily
By integrating these valuable lessons from the world of sports into organizational design and execution, we not only raise the performance bar but also create a culture of excellence that inspires every employee to achieve his/her full potential (Hitting The Purple Patch). The path to success then is not just a possibility but an inevitable destination.
