A FEW years ago, some Isthmian League clubs were getting fed up with the state their away dressing room was being left in after games and took it up with the league.
Then-chairman Alan Turvey got onto League Cup sponsors Robert Dyas and arranged for brooms to be handed over to every club at the AGM.
From the following season there would be no excuse for rubbish and mud to be left all over the floor by visiting teams.
It’s not hard, is it? England C manager Paul Fairclough demands his squad leave every room as they found it after meetings.
When Lincoln City played at Arsenal in the FA Cup last season, stories came out that the Premier League club couldn’t believe how tidy the Imps were.
Boss Danny Cowley was borrowing a value from the most successful team in world sport – New Zealand’s relentless rugby union side.
After every game, some of the best and most decorated sports stars on earth tidy up. Where other well-paid sportsmen walk out and leave the problem to someone else, the All Blacks stay true to a key value that forms part of their winning culture: humility. They literally and figuratively ‘sweep the sheds’.
Any Non-League club and manager looking to build their own successful and winning culture should put the All Blacks on the study list.
James Kerr’s fascinating book ‘Legacy: What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life’ delves deep into the reasons why New Zealand are so successful.
Transformation
A small country with a population of four million people has been at the top of the sport for more than 100 years. Perhaps part of that comes from geography. The Land of the Long White Cloud’s people feel like they’re slipping off the edge of the earth, but their national sport puts them on the map. A force of nature that reminds the world who they are and what they can achieve.
In 2004, the team were on a slippery slope, however. Failing to hit their heights, the start of their transformation into the force they are today followed a hammering from South Africa.
Despite a 40-26 defeat, senior players led a court session – a drinking game that hands out alcoholic punishments for various misdemeanours – that left many of them paralytic around the team hotel. A culture change was needed.
Principles like ‘Champions Do Extra’, ‘No D*******s’, and ‘better people make better All Blacks’.
Carrying the hopes of a nation hadn’t been easy. The team had become known as chokers, before finally getting their hands back on the World Cup on home soil in 2011 and regaining it four years later.
Buzzwords
Now, as the British & Irish Lions are finding out, they are living up to their self-proclaimed billing, ‘We are the most dominant team in the history of the world’. A tagline written on the whiteboard in their team room that reminds players of their quest for greatness.
The All Blacks grant their players ownership in their pursuit of excellence. They make their own decisions on the pitch as well as off.
When Cory Jane and Israel Dagg broke a curfew before the World Cup quarter-final, their punishment was decided by their team-mates – a leadership group is appointed – rather than the management.
Head coach Graham Henry, who led them to glory in 2011 before being replaced by?Steve Hansen, stopped giving team-talks before games when he realised they were pointless. Why build-up to a game in training throughout the week, put across gameplans and roles, then stand in front of the team ten minutes before the game telling them what to do?
Now the players also understand the responsibility they have to their country, they understand who their predecessors were and how they need to pass the jersey onto the next generation.
Many may scoff at this. The word ‘culture’ is often seen as dirty in football and managers who preach similar ideas are often accused of swallowing a textbook with meaningless buzzwords by those who have a more old-school view.
But it certainly works for the most dominant teams and dismissing it bows down to the insular reputation football has. Those who embrace ideas from other sports can edge ahead of the competition. And it can all start with tidying up.
