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Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Demented Moles Update
An extended Demented Moles update this week, due to the nature of the thrashing we were handed last night. We got belted 3-14. 14 goals is a lot - it's like a hundred point loss in AFL. I was keeping in the second half - I actually lost count of how many times I had to pick the ball out of the back of the net, but I think it was about eight.
So what happened? Well it's a team sport, so basically the team failed. Thinking about it reminded me of how often sporting analogies are used to explain other activities in life. Often those analogies seem trite, but that's because using sport as an analogy immediately puts people on cliche-alert. But anyway here's some of the lessons I learnt from team sport last night.
a) Personnel: all season we've struggled to field a regular team. From week to week we have an unsettled team, so what we learn from one week doesn't carry over to the next week, because half of the people who learnt it last time aren't playing this time. That's why high staff-turnover in organisations is a sign of poor performance - every time someone leaves you lose some knowledge and experience.
b) Training: we basically don't train. It's hard to find time to get everyone together. At the start of the season we did train and it did help. But as the nights got colder we've stopped doing it. So now our skills are atrophying. Similarly, if your employees don't train regularly, they won't improve, and might actually get worse.
c) Confidence: ours is shot now. You have to play with confidence or you're dead. The other team senses it which gives them more confidence and then they play better. But if you have confidence you try harder because you're confident you'll get the reward for your efforts. When people in a group have poor morale they don't try very hard - things don't get done and if you're not careful the situation gets worse.
So for the Moles to improve we need to have a committed core group that plays every week and trains regularly, and then the wins and confidence will follow. But not this season...
So what happened? Well it's a team sport, so basically the team failed. Thinking about it reminded me of how often sporting analogies are used to explain other activities in life. Often those analogies seem trite, but that's because using sport as an analogy immediately puts people on cliche-alert. But anyway here's some of the lessons I learnt from team sport last night.
a) Personnel: all season we've struggled to field a regular team. From week to week we have an unsettled team, so what we learn from one week doesn't carry over to the next week, because half of the people who learnt it last time aren't playing this time. That's why high staff-turnover in organisations is a sign of poor performance - every time someone leaves you lose some knowledge and experience.
b) Training: we basically don't train. It's hard to find time to get everyone together. At the start of the season we did train and it did help. But as the nights got colder we've stopped doing it. So now our skills are atrophying. Similarly, if your employees don't train regularly, they won't improve, and might actually get worse.
c) Confidence: ours is shot now. You have to play with confidence or you're dead. The other team senses it which gives them more confidence and then they play better. But if you have confidence you try harder because you're confident you'll get the reward for your efforts. When people in a group have poor morale they don't try very hard - things don't get done and if you're not careful the situation gets worse.
So for the Moles to improve we need to have a committed core group that plays every week and trains regularly, and then the wins and confidence will follow. But not this season...
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