Soccer Lessons

 It is obvious that good soccer coaches or mangers earn the respect of their players and create a ‘playing system’ and an environment (or culture) in which players want to perform for their colleagues, club and coach.

Poor managers do exactly the opposite of these things.  They lack the respect of players (known as ‘losing the dressing room’) and fail to creature that supportive culture.

Players in an unsupportive culture have more (and longer-lasting) injuries and (intentionally or not) tend to lose form and fail to  be competitive.

So, take an interest.  Watch how managers/coaches react to wins or defeats, how they respond to questions or comments by TV pundits, how they handle out-of-form players and so on.  Then note the upturn or downturn in performance or results - and try to work out what works with a soccer team.  

Think about how as shifts to less management and more coaching might help you crest a supportive environment and culture.

You should then be able to work out what might work with your own work teams, leading to higher performance snd productivity.

Lessons from Soccer

 I  am a soccer fan.  I watch it (mainly on TV) regularly and have my favourite teams.  I also take an interest in football management - especially in the ‘management merry-go-round’ where managers are sacked by one club and then employed by another.  

Over the last 20 or 30 years in the UK soccer world, there has been a steady but consistent move from soccer management to soccer coaching.  British managers, especially in the  Premier League (the top tier of English soccer) have been replaced by European caches.

It is obvious that good soccer coaches or mangers earn the respect of their players and create a ‘playing system’ and an environment (or culture) in which players want to perform for their colleagues, club and coach.

Poor managers do exactly the opposite.  They lack the respect of players (known as ‘losing the dressing room’) and fail to create that supportive culture.

Players in an unsupportive culture have more (and longer-lasting) injuries and (intentionally or not) tend to lose form and fail to  be competitive.

So, take an interest.  Watch how managers/coaches react to wins or defeats, how they respond to questions or comments by TV pundits, how they handle out-of-form players and so on.  Then note the upturn or downturn in performance or results - and try to work out what works with a soccer team.  

Think about how a shift to less management and more coaching might help you crest a supportive environment and culture in your organisation.

You should then be able to work out what might work with your work team, leading to higher performance snd productivity.

Its the Service Sector, Stupid!

Productivity growth has been falling or stagnating for the last couple of decades.

Everyone seems surprised.  (Well pundits, journalists and politicians do!)

I'm not!

The growth referred to above was mostly in the manufacturing sector - where productivity growth is relatively easy to accomplish ... especially with the help of new technologies.

But most developed nations over the last few decades have moved from manufacturing to service industries.  It is much harder to make significant gains in productivity in the service sector and so productivty growth has declined.

Logical - not surprising.

Will AI (as a technology with obvious applications and implications for the service sector) give us the productivity boost we seek?

It might .... but whether we can cope with those gains is questionable.

Will the wealth gains be shared amongst the already rich - leaving the rest of us with no jobs, no wealth and no hope.  I'm not sure .... but the fact that the application of AI is largely in the hands of the already super-rich, doesn't fill me with confidence.

 

The British Prtoductivity Malaise

Though this post refers specifically to the UK, there are lessons for most nations … so don’t turn the page… read on!

UK productivity stagnated some times ago and has been bouncing along the bottom of most nationality comparison charts for too long.

Serval people far more important than me have tried to explain the reasons behind this state of affairs…. But from what I’ve read, these people know little about productivity.

Liz Truss, for example, was very briefly the UK Prime Minister and she talked about UK workers, and especially those in the north, having to ‘pull their weight’ and ‘graft more’.  The only thing she got right here was the recognition that productivity in the North of the country is significantly lower than in the South.

Did she stop to think why this might be?  It doesn’t seem like it.  She just assumed that since productivity is measured in terms of GDP per worker or per hour worked, it must be underperforming workers that are responsible for the North-South divide. 

(Though I have named Liz Truss (because if the leader of the government does not understand the issues, why should anyone else) this view is shared by many others amongst the ‘great and the good’, the policymakers and strategists.

However, the ‘gap’ or divide is a result of UK exports depending largely on financial services- and financial services firms being largely based in the South of the country.  This is a structural, geopolitical issue and drastically skews the productivity figures in favour of the South.

Now,I am not suggesting that we should not concentrate on improving productivity in the North but to start from a position of blame and recrimination does no good at all.

We need to ensure the North receives the same level of investment as the South, that Norther workers have the same training and development opportunities and that the northern infrastructrure is developed.  (We have in the government a ‘levelling up’ secretary of state … what are they doing?)

Poor productivity is rarely a symptom of, or the result of, poor work rates; it is almost always the result of under-investment, poor infrastructure and poor systems.

If you understand the problem ,you have some chance of solving it.  Those politicians who take the easy line (workers need to graft more) are simply demonstrating that they either do not understand the problem or find it too difficult to solve, so make sure they pass the blame (and the buck)