Barca - Why More Companies should do what they do?

Many people will be glued to their TV screens this Saturday to watch the final of the champions league between Barcelona and Manchester United. Both teams are deserving of reaching the final but it's Barcelona that I want to focus on. Weirdly enough, it's from a business management and consulting point of view. Below are some of the reasons why not only football clubs should be interested in what Barcelona are doing.

The club has a philosophy on how they play football. All staff at the club understand what it is and how it works. This philosophy singly guides the club in all the decisions that it makes and covers all aspects of both their professional and development set-ups. It affects the players they buy, the players they welcome into their Academy, the coaches they use in the academy. Everyone, thinks, breathes and then acts this philosophy out. If any actions of elements of the set-up do not further the cause of the philosophy then they/it are removed. Nothing is bigger than the philosophy and by implication the club. As valuable an asset as Samuel Eto was, when he went against the grain of the philosophy he was asked to leave. Companies need to aspire to developing this kind of philosophy or culture.

The philosophy comes first, the style second and everything else is not really important. I recently found out that Barca junior teams don't actually do very well in the leagues that they play in. At first glance this would appear weird but on further inspection it should be obvious. The coaches and the teams are really interested in winning the leagues they play in. They are more interested in honing their skills and living the philosophy so that they can fit seamlessly into the first team and play on the biggest stage in both a world and Spanish football, the Camp Nu. Think about the seamless way that players fit into the first team, if this is not a perfect example of talent management and succession planning then I don't know what is.

Their current team at any time features about 11 players from the Academy system, so there is very little need to make big purchases on the transfer scene. If they do, then they go out and buy its the corporate version of head hunting, they see a talent that they know they can't produce or don't have internally and then buy. Even then, the person being bough will fit into the philosophy easily. Zlatan is a rare example of when the system failed.

Accenture employ and up or out policy, where if people are not showing the correct rate of development then the are managed out of the company. Barca do the same thing, look Giovanni Do Santos, his development was slower than Bojan, Messi and even Pedro (a little bit of a late bloomer). Rijkaard promoted him to the first team, maybe a bit prematurely but he was given an opportunity. He's ultimate demise was due to slow development and behavior not in line with the philosophy (he made unrealistic salary demands). Barca also use this very well, because players start young its easier for them to see whether or not they will 'make the grade' so to speak.

The topic holds so much more that I think I will definitely return for Part Two but in closing I want to point out that since there is only one philosophy, set of values and style of play there is never any conflict about how a team should be playing and hardly ever inteference with team selections and decision the coach makes. You can leave people to manage themselves and deliver because they live the philosophy.

Good luck to both teams...

When to get Divorced or Changing Tack

I'm reading an old but very interesting book by a business management Guru and the most interesting thing (and the book is full of pearls) he says is that he is not afraid to contradict himself. At first it sounded really strange but the explanation is beautiful in its simplicity. All he is saying is that don't be afraid to say that, with new knowledge at hand and the benefit of hindsight you now disagree with yourself. There is absolutely no shame in that. You don't really find this is academia as the tendency there is to defend your standpoint to the death, camps form and friendships disintegrate. The shortage of grant funding sometimes drives this but whatever the reason its unhealthy.

Thoughts leaders need to be just that, thinking and speaking and postulating on the fringes and boundaries. If you're operating there then, there are bound to be instances when you change you mind about something, be it a principle, model or equation. The most important thing is to say:'Yes that's the way that I was thinking but I have now changed tack and this makes more sense for me now'

That's about embracing the knowledge that's out there and not blindly defending theory or modelling that no longer makes sense to you. So don't be afraid to get divorced from an idea and change tack. The aim, or point of your involvement is to provide a solution that best suits the situation and you can't do that if you're blindly faithful.

I believe they were a 60's rock band, Blind faith, they were very successful but that is for another blog..

Multi-tasking: Breaking it down

Ok so I'm going to try and avoid the debate about whether or not men can do it and focus rather on how it can be done and why its easier than you think. Follow me on this one, everything that you do is a process which is made up of steps and each step in the process takes a designated time to complete. The problem that non-multi-taskers (hey is that a word?) have is that they assume that while a step is being completed that they must remain 'faithful' to that process and make sure that it happens on time and the way that it should. Let me explain. Using the example from a previous blog of making tea, when you put the kettle on, you can stand there and wait for it to boil or you can fetch the cup, put the tea bag in and maybe grab the milk. Hey presto you are now multi-tasking. Granted it is within a single process but you have now moved from only boiling the water to completing other meaningful tasks related to the process of making coffee.

The trick now is how to then extend this to cover more than one process. So, you could, if you really wanted to, do the following:
- Switch the kettle on
- Put a tea bag in cup
- Go and auto tune the rugby, and
- Fetch a jersey to put on

An individual who has trained themselves properly would be able return a phone call as part of this list. Congratulations your multi-tasking now covers more than one process.

You will however notice that there are some key requirement for any of this to work. One of the requirements is that some of the tasks you complete must be self managing (i.e. they take care of themselves, when the kettle has finished boiling it switches itself off), and one or more of the tasks must be a non-thinking exercise. In order for something to be a non-thinking exercise it needs to be a strong part of your routine, routine removes all elements of concentration, it allows you and the body to complete an exercise without really thinking. Things like kicking a ball, swinging a club, putting the washing machine on. All of these, if they form a strong part of your routine will become automatic and allow you to focus on other things that you can do at the same time, where you would need to concentrate more. The last and probably most difficult type of multi-tasking and this if for black-belts only, is the use of two senses. An example of this is to talk on the phone and auto-tune the rugby. This is because it requires you to process to different types of information, visual and auditory. The key to this is to remain focused, or keep your eye on the ball so to speak. While auto-tuning don't get distracted by anything else that you see on the schedule, just go where you want to and auto-tune the show. If yourself to be distracted you will transfer some of the attention or concentration from the phone call to the tuning and then you're lost.

Ok so I said I would avoid the gender discussion but I lied. The majority of women have very strict schedules that they follow which you could set you clock by (except choosing what to wear in the morning that's a life mystery), they have to because they have so many things to do. But they're unconsciously training themselves to multi-task. While your wife is putting stuff in the washing machine or dish washer she is making a call and deciding on what to have for lunch while she waits for the person to pick up. She is using her automation levels as well as the time it takes to complete steps to get things done and use her time optimally.

I managed to type this and drink a cup of coffee at the same time, does that count?