What can business learn from the debacle?
by John Buchanan
If I hear the word ‘cyclical’ again to describe what happened to Australia in this Ashes series, it will be more spin than Warnie’s famed ball to Gatting in 1993 at Old Trafford. Business, sport, weather, according to some, go in cycles. Hence it was England’s turn to do well, and Australia’s to not perform. That suggests that the future is pre-determined no matter what is done or what is not – how ludicrous!
My view is while we cannot control the future, we can certainly influence our destiny by understanding where we want to be in a certain time period, and then put in place strategies and actions to take us in that direction.
Having had the opportunity to speak with Andy Flower, coach of the English Cricket team, and his captain Andy Strauss over the past 18months, it was very obvious that English cricket were making some significant strides on the field as well as behind the scenes with their Academy, their pathway programming, their staffing, their innovative training and preparations.
At the same stage, I was observing, and occasionally discussing my observations with people in and around the Australian team. It said to me that England knew where it was going and how it was intending to get there. Australia on the other hand was very unsure.
In 2005, we lost the Ashes in England. The team had been criticized when arriving into England because we were hurting the game, due to the dominance of our performances. Some 3 months on we had lost the Ashes 2-1, and suddenly everything was wrong with Australian Cricket. A major Board review was called to have the coach justify why he should be retained. Calls were also made for change of captaincy, different selectors, new players and so on.
For me as coach it made me ask myself three very important questions – could I still make a difference with the team? Did I still have the energy, desire passion to keep doing what I was doing? Did I still have the respect of the key players? I had to look myself in the mirror to answer these questions. If I had answered “no” to any of those questions, I would not have attended my Board review and been able to outline the vision for the Australian cricket team for the next 18 months. During this 18 month period, I believed it would also give Cricket Australia time to seek out the next coach.
So as CEO or Board member or leader of any team, an important first step into the New Year is to ask yourself those three questions, honestly. If the answer is “no” to any one of the questions, then, it will be a difficult year for you and your team or organization, if you choose to stay.
England it seems has a clear picture about being number 1, or being the dominant cricket nation in the next couple of years. A benchmark measure of their progress was this Ashes series. It demonstrates they are on track.
Clear strategy to enable the vision is next. This revolves around the type of game you want to play which will give your team competitive advantage over your opposition. Understanding the type of game you want to play then helps determine the type of players needed to deliver that game. With the game plan and the talent selected, then it requires ensuring that the two are moulded together to give the team best chance of performing, making good decisions, consistently under pressure.
In order to achieve this outcome, strong leadership including the team captain is required to create the most challenging team environment, while concurrently maintaining a culture that values unity, continuous improvement, honesty, and of course, winning.
England had a game plan and a team that they employed throughout the series. Irrespective of the loss in Perth, the injuries to Broad and Finn, and the inadequate performances of Collingwood, they backed their players and their plan.
England ensured that their leadup preparation not only had them in best shape for Brisbane, but also had them prepared for the remainder of the series. They played their Test team in the leadup games in Perth and Adelaide; sent bowlers to Brisbane early; and had backup bowlers Bresnan and Tremlett playing in Hobart and Melbourne.
Strong leadership has been demonstrated by head coach, Andy Flower when not selecting Pietersen for the ODI series in England last year, allowing him to travel to South Africa for some remedial coaching. In addition, he did not allow wives & partners to join the early part of the tour; censured those who made indiscriminant tweets; and chose David Saker as the hardman bowling coach to assist the fast bowlers play as a unit in Australia; and constantly, in his own way, delivered a discipline and a culture of high performance.
While the difference in skill levels between the teams was minimal, the way England has gone about this Ashes series is in stark contrast to Australia as the end results have shown.
It is an outstanding case study for any business as it looks ahead through 2011 and beyond. England is on this journey.
Australia, on the other hand, has an opportunity to sift through the gloom and doom, and realize there are silver linings to this humiliating defeat. One of which is to look very closely at England, and learn from them, the lessons they have learnt and are now applying…..as indeed any CEO or team leader would do if they aspire to be the best.