It is with much amusement that I’ve been following the discussions of the Illuminati over on the UAFC about the business issues facing Ulster Rugby. Amongst much wailing and gnashing of teeth all sorts of suggestions have been made from implementing dated business initiatives to a complete re-structuring of Ulster Rugby with the supporters in charge.
I’m sure great sports managers of the past and present like Brian Clough, Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Declan Kidney and Alex Ferguson all now know were they went wrong. They shouldn’t have wasted their time cajoling and inspiring their players and filling them full of confidence or fear or whatever it took to make them play, but they should have carried out a full value stream mapping analysis of their club for the first couple of years, put forward their business plan and just sat back and waited a couple of years for their continuous improvement strategy to come to fruition. Happy days. OK Sir Clive did gain some sort of success with this methodology with England but it could be argued that this was down to a unique set of players rather than anything else. Certainly attempts to recreate this structured approach have not been successful, either in the short term with The 2005 Lions or in the long term with EO’S’ Ireland. Applied to the Lions it lead to abject failure and with Ireland it delivered supreme underachievement. The latter being gloriously illustrated within a year of the replacement of the coach, both with Ireland and with the knock on effect on the perennially underperforming Leinster.
Common sense tells us that a player will generally perform better when he’s happy but history shows us that some players perform exceptionally well when they are unhappy and feel they have a point to prove. Some players respond to being lifted and laid and having every waking minute documented for them while others positively detest this. In short people are different and respond differently to various inputs. Good managers know this instinctively and can get the right performances by pushing the right buttons across the team.
Of course if success is going to be maximised the right systems have to be in place to capitalise on this but, fortunately, or unfortunately, whatever the case may be, the success has to come first and that comes with appointing the right manager. Clubs like Manchester United and Munster were being run very poorly before they got the right managers in place, just ask their fans. However as the results and the revenue rolled in they managed to put in place systems that could maximise the benefits, but compared to delivering a winning team those “management” type decisions are pretty straight forward.
I hope when Mike Reid or the PMT board, or whoever, sits down to interview the new Ulster manager that they don’t get sidetracked by discussing what academy systems the candidates have put in place or what their corrective counselling procedure for errant players is or what statistical analysis package they use to track individual player performances improvements but instead asks them, “How are you going to make this team win?” If they start talking about systems and performance targets and statistical analysis show them the door. If they start talking about management support systems, their line reporting structure and new player recruitment policies show them the door. If they start talking about family issues and extended leaves of absence, stone them, and then show them the door. However, if they say they’ll find a way to make the players play then give them lash. A three year continuous improvement plan will only get Ulster to a certain level of mediocrity but a manager that can actually manage players and not stifle them with systems is worth the risk. (The added benefit is that even if they are crap you’re more likely to find it out sooner rather than later and therefore you won’t have to go through the torture of checking target performance metrics and complete employee performance evaluations every quarter in an attempt to justify supposed improvements.)
The above is an extract from “Winning for Dummies 2009”, Barnes D, The FRU Press 2009. £12.00 from all good book shops. Special Edition includes a free tee shirt. Order online now.
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