Can legal learn from sport by Steven Treharne, Mogers Drewett
This article was originally featured as a column in the October issue of LPM. To read the issue in full, download LPM.
British cycling has experienced a rough ride recently – with allegations made of bullying, discrimination and a ‘win-at-all-costs’ mentality. But the history of the sport evidences success, with 22 Olympic gold medals won over the past three games, and four Tour de France winners over the past five years. This winning-at-all-costs environment and culture may or may not be right for SME firms, but there are certainly a few nuggets we can broadly take from sport.
First, purpose – any old management book will espouse the virtues of having a purpose. Making money, in my view, is not it. Profit is like breathing, you don’t jump out of bed in the morning shouting: “I can breathe, I can breathe!” There are greater motivational factors.
Olympic rower Matthew Pinsent said during his preparations: “Everyone had one goal, to make the boat go faster, and nothing would stand in the way.” That was their purpose, not to win medals. By everyone he didn’t just mean athletes but coaches, nutritionists, masseurs, engineers and kit designers – they all knew their role, understood why they were important and what they were aiming to achieve. Do our people have the same clarity and can they articulate our own firm’s purpose? How many of our business plans are written in such a succinct and unequivocal way with clear, measurable outcomes?
Next, culture – easy to fix on a common purpose when you have seriously motivated and dedicated professional athletes. Work life may not be like that. The Maoris have a saying: “A little water seeping through a small hole may swamp a canoe.” James Kerr in his book Legacy tells how the All Blacks moved this concept on. The team deconstructed and reconstructed the right culture for them after crashing out of the 2007 Rugby World Cup, allegedly suffering from a drinking culture. Their mantra, which holds true today, is: no matter how good a player you are, if your attitude and behaviours do not culturally align with the team, you won’t play. How robust are we at tackling that type of problem (usually caused by a highbilling partner)?
Control the controllable. Chris Boardman, prior to the 1992 Olympic individual pursuit gold medal race, sat beneath the main stand feeling the pressure. He was unemployed, broke, married with two young children, crippled with nerves and about to go out and race in front of an estimated 62 million viewers worldwide. Rather than be concerned with the strength of his competitor or any other extraneous factors, he focused on what he could control – his breathing, his pace and his heart rate. He went on to win gold and break the world record.
Dr John Coates, of Cambridge University’s neuroscience department, found that there are three primary causes for stress: novelty, uncontrollability and uncertainty – for us this may translate as fear of Brexit, Donald Trump’s actions or Scottish independence, but we’re unable to control or influence any of that. Equally, we cannot control our competitors, new entrants or our excessive compliance burden. We can, however, dictate our purpose and create and enforce a culture that will help us to be successful. Like Boardman in Barcelona, we can take control of our futures by ensuring we and our firms are the best they can be – with everyone helping the boat to go faster.
