Last Sunday’s 2^nd Round debacle for England in the World Cup was a chastening experience for a lot of us who harbour hopes of witnessing football success for the national team in our lifetime.  On the past two weeks’ evidence, we’re going to be waiting a long time!

To some extent, Saturday’s 4-1 defeat by Germany wasn’t a surprise, following the poor performances of the group stage – and the epithets ‘abject’, ‘inept’, and ‘disastrous’ which were to the fore in the aftermath, were pretty well justified based on what we saw on the pitch.  One commentator, ex-England winger Chris Waddle, who made it to the semi-final with Bobby Robson’s England in 1990, has judged that the England team performed acceptably for about 45 minutes out of 360 en route to their failure.

I know I’m not the only person thinking about this, but I do find it astonishing that individuals of such proven pedigree (a lot of them are stars at some of the best clubs in Europe) should have looked anything but world-class in this tournament; and it set me thinking: was there something about how they functioned as a team (or a squad) that contributed to this?

Anyone who’s read Patrick Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions of a Team (an excellent book, quick to read and full of insights, but avoiding the infantilising tendency of many in that bracket), will know that he posits five things that get in the way of building a successful and performing team:

1. Absence of Trust
2. Fear of Conflict
3. Lack of Commitment
4. Avoidance of Accountability
5. Inattention to Results

So, I thought I’d just look at the England football performance through the prism of Lencioni and see if anything chimes.  Of course, the only people who currently know the truth of the matter are within the England camp, and for now that hasn’t been shared with us (no doubt a tell-all book will follow), so don’t phone, it’s just for fun…

Dysfunction 1: Absence of Trust — This occurs when team members are reluctant to be vulnerable with one another and are unwilling to admit their mistakes, weaknesses or needs for help.  Without a certain comfort level among team members, a foundation of trust is impossible.

In relation to England, one might briefly highlight the following as having been damaging to trust within the camp:

-          John Terry’s infidelity with his England and Chelsea team-mate’s partner.  Although as one of England’s best players JT’s team-mates were never going to want him out of the team, t was clear that many regarded this as ‘crossing the line’ and will have regarded his actions as a breach of trust.

-          The Capello Index.  Only a month before the tournament, Fabio Capello signed a contract with a media company to participate in a website by ‘marking’ his players game by game, based on their performances in the World Cup matches.  It’s hard not to laugh when one imagines what scores he would have given, hindsight is a wonderful thing!  However, as was pointed out at the time, it smacked of an error of judgement and will have damaged the ‘comfort level’ among the squad members.

Dysfunction 2: Fear of Conflict — Teams that are lacking on trust are incapable of engaging in unfiltered, passionate debate about key issues, causing situations where team conflict can easily turn into veiled discussions and back channel comments.  In a work setting where team members do not openly air their opinions, inferior decisions are the result.

-          After the second match, against Algeria, John Terry spoke out in an interview, and said that there would be a clear-the-air crisis meeting that night at which everyone would speak their minds, good or bad, and get things off their chest.  At the time, I remember thinking ‘good’, that will help them to overcome whatever inhibitions or problems there are, which clearly there must be.  However, tellingly, Terry was smacked down by his manager publicly (through ‘back channels’?) told he had spoken out of turn (Absence of Trust again), and 24 hours later Frank Lampard denied that any ‘crisis talks’ had taken place.

-          It is well documented that Capello has an authoritarian streak, and a command-and-control management style, so from the outside it looked like he had prevented any dissent being aired.  Not good for the team by Lencioni’s theory.

Dysfunction #3: Lack of Commitment — Without conflict, it is difficult for team members to commit to decisions, creating an environment where ambiguity prevails. Lack of direction and commitment can make employees, particularly star employees, disgruntled.

-          Wayne Rooney was explicit in saying that he preferred to play a lone striker’s role up front, something which was denied him by the manager.  John Terry revealed explicitly (whether with tacit support of others I can’t say) that he thought Joe Cole should be starting the games, again overruled.  Steven Gerrard was asked to play wide on the left (not his natural position), and Frank Lampard was expected to play more of a holding role (not his natural one either).  If these four were the England ‘star employees’, would it be a surprise if they showed a lack of commitment, if they felt they were not listened to?  Wayne Rooney in particular looked disgruntled.

-          As a postscript here, I was struck how Joe Cole, in an interview the morning after England’s exit, prefaced his comments about the team’s exit by saying that ‘on a personal level, obviously I’m disappointed I didn’t play more’.  Not the words of a committed member of the squad; rather, someone thinking about himself first.

Dysfunction #4: Avoidance of Accountability — When teams don’t commit to a clear plan of action, even the most focused and driven individuals hesitate to call their peers on actions and behaviours that may seem counterproductive to the overall good of the team.

-          This dysfunction is less obvious in relation to the England team.  There was no lack of ‘taking responsibility’ in words at least, with every poor performance followed by interviews in which the captain or others shouldered the collective blame.  However, there is always a suspicion that that is lip service, and Wayne Rooney’s outburst “Nice to see your own fans boo you, that’s what loyal support is” after the Algeria game smacked of someone not admitting accountability to me.

Dysfunction #5: Inattention to Results — Team members naturally tend to put their own needs (ego, career development, recognition, etc.) ahead of the collective goals of the team when individuals aren’t held accountable.  If a team has lost sight of the need for achievement, the business ultimately suffers.

-          Need I say more?!  The tournament ends, and the players head home to their lovely lives, their lovely wives, and their lovely weekly pay-packets, playing in teams where they are completely valued and the systems of play are built around them.

-          The England players looked beaten down, uninspired, and afraid to express themselves.

-          Meanwhile, we see in the South American sides (4 out of the 8 quarter-finalists are from there: Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay), and in Germany also, a very evident relish for representing their country, with sparkling team play and performances that are greater than the sum of their parts.

At least the next 8 games should be more fun to watch!!

The focus of the day was about working more effectively together and increasing trust and communication throughout the team. Following a consultation with two members of the Executive team, an event was designed that would highlight the business challenges that were currently being faced and the positive impact that effective teamwork, communication and collaboration would have on both the results and the engagement and motivation of the whole team

I had heard a lot about team building days previously and I always wondered what they were about and what participants actually learn on a day like this. Even more importantly, I had questioned how what happened on a team building day would link back to the everyday working environment. I have to say though that the whole event really opened my eyes; it was delivered in a really unique style, incorporating high levels of creativity, interaction and challenge!

One of the things that I noticed was that initially the participants were a bit reluctant to put all their trust in each other believing that they were in competition, although that was never in the brief they received. Once they realised that by working together they could achieve more, they began to share information and resources with amazing results.

Through effective communication, collaboration, teamwork and trust, everyone worked more efficiently and tasks were finished far quicker. The difference in the levels of individual and collective motivation, commitment to the task and quality of the results was astounding.

As we started the review of the activity, one of things that I found most interesting was that it was the participants, rather than waiting for the facilitator to do it, that recognised and highlighted many of the things that I have mentioned. Talking openly about what had happened during the activity and the impact that it had on them, they also started to relate many of the examples to work specific situations. Finally, and without much prompting, they also began to plan how they needed to take the ‘learns’ from the activity and apply them back at work to achieve a truly collaborative result.

Having observed the event and spoken with the members of the Executive team, it is apparent that the Team Building day is simply the first step towards the embedding of a new set of team behaviours that will improve results even further. The Executive team were quick to recognise that to embed and sustain the change, will require their time and continued focus to make the new behaviours habitual.

Yapp Brothers have begun this process and are already beginning to establish their ground rules. It is these behavioural ground rules that will underpin the vision, values and performance of the company going forward.  Phoenix has and will continue to support this process. Three months later it is clear to everyone that the day was not simply fun but more importantly it has created a real difference in their work environment with the participants consistently still demonstrating the collaborative team behaviours and seeing a tangible difference in motivation and results .

One of the conclusions that I drew from attending the event is that a day out of the office rather than just being fun needs to give people a chance to stop for a moment, step back from their day to day tasks and spend a bit of time re-evaluating their strengths & development areas.  People need to be given the opportunity to ask themselves – what works for me currently or what am I good at? What is more challenging or more difficult?  How can I begin to work or build upon and address these areas? And finally what help, direction or support do I need for others around me?  From a team perspective, a day like this offers the chance for people to get to know each other again even often after working together for years. It can be a real eye opener for people to become more aware of and appreciate others’ strengths. They can then truly start to recognise and implement  their strengths to achieve the maximum individual, collective and business potential.

It was a brilliant day and I’m really looking forward to getting involved in another event soon!