As a passionate Aussie and sports fanatic, it pains me to praise an arch enemy like the New Zealand All Blacks, but credit where credit is due, and more importantly, there are some important leadership lessons to be learned from their story.
I am currently reading ‘Legacy’ by James Kerr – what the All Blacks can teach us about the business of life. Kerr tells the story of how they have become the world’s most successful sporting team and how it didn’t happen by chance, but by design.
In 2004 the All Blacks were going through a difficult time on and off the field. A group of men agreed to sit down and discuss how to ‘fix this thing’. The meeting lasted three days and is considered to be pivotal in overhauling their culture which, in turn, has lead to their unprecedented success.
The group agreed that broadly what they wanted to do was to ‘create an environment that would stimulate the players and make them want to take part in it’. A key moment was when Brian Lochore, former captain, coach and team manager came up with the six words that would define the efforts of the next eight years.
“Better people make better All Blacks”
What they agreed to do was to focus on the personal development of their players to help them be better people as well as better sportsmen.
Here are some key takeouts that can benefit us all as we strive to make our organisations successful:
– we need to regularly take stock of where we are at – particularly our culture
– it shouldn’t be up to just one person – involve a ‘brains trust’ in the process
– as important as systems and policies are, fundamentally organisations are about people and relationships
– success comes from planning – implementation is important, but the plan comes first
– becoming ‘better’ should be the goal, not becoming perfect, just better.
Helping your people to become better is the key to your organisation’s success.
