I have been part
of many organizations and teams that have been successful, but I believe the
most successful team I was part of in terms of the internal systems in place
was my travel soccer team, Chicago Magic Academy PSG. We were compromised of
some of the most talented soccer players in the state, I would travel an hour
every day in order to practice. At one point we were ranked top 10 in the
nation and had the #1 rated defense.
The main goal of
our team was to make playoffs and win the national championship, in order to do
this we had to finish top 3 in our conference, which was regarded as one of the
most competitive conferences in the country. We were extremely disciplined and
that was all because of the system we had in place as mentioned from the book,
"One Boss". Our "Boss" was our head coach and academy
director. He made all the decisions from who was dressing, to who was playing,
and to who would be moved off the first team due to poor performance. If you
were not on good terms with him, you had no chance of being part of the long
term future of the academy. However at the same time, as mentioned in
'Reframing Organizations', the "Simple Hierarchy" also applied
because we had someone who would communicate to the director for us, the
captains. We had two captains who led the team through warm ups and would let
the director know if there were any issues on the teams from a whole-team
perspective, but at the same time we could go to the director ourselves for
personal matters. ''Circle
Network'' and ''All Channel Network'' both function without a leader, so they
do not relate to this successful team. At the same time I believe the my team
was more similar to the "Simple Hierarchy" because we also had
assistant coaches, we had one associate head coach and then three or four
additional assistants that coached the lower level teams. They would be in
charge if the director or other higher assistant coaches were not around or
could not make training.
Another big
reason we were very successful was that our communication was impeccable on and
off the field. We knew when to get on each others backs and knew when to say
the right things to each other. We all knew exactly what we were going to do on
the field so we could anticipate everything. We all knew our roles on the team
and our director made it clear what he expected from you, if you did not live
up to his expectations then you would be benched and you would lose your role
on the team. In this sense, we had checks and balances. We needed to ensure we
were playing at the highest level possible and would get rid of the
'weak-links'.
We all
knew we were working toward a common goal and were able to unite together,
although we did not win, we made playoffs and lost to the eventual national
champions. Of the six distinguishing characteristics of high performing teams
that Katzenbach and Smith's cited in their book, I believe my team possessed
common commitment to the goal of a national championship and collective
accountability through our checks and balances.
Overall, while we did not win a national championship, we did make playoffs and made a run at our goal. I believe if we had not made certain internal changes mid-way through the season, we would have accomplished our goal. We brought in kids mid-way through the season from the high school teams and it ruined our chemistry and caused us to lose our undefeated record.
A lot of your classmates wrote about being on a sports team in high school. I gather that a travel soccer team is not through any particular school. Is that right? Just for my own education, did your school also have a soccer team? Next, did you have to earn a position on this team via tryout? If so, how did that work.
ReplyDeleteIf the other teams you played against were also well coached, would the things you talked about (impeccable communication in particular) serve as an advantage during a game? Or would that sort of thing equalize out? I don't know enough about soccer so I'm going to switch to basketball to make the next point.
It seems to me that at the pro level now, with a couple of exceptions, there is less reliance on teamwork now than when I first became a fan in the late 1960s - early 1970s. The very best players are tremendous athletes and there one-on-one skills are stupendous. But many teams don't really utilize all five players on most possessions. There is much more of a two-man game. (As a fan, that is less fun to watch.)
So I wonder if in your team it was not just the communication but also the positioning and the amount of passing that matters. These things make the game more about team and less about the individual. It would be good for you to describe that some.
Then you might have discussed, in addition, the travel part in going to play a game. That part may actually be important in team success. I don't know. But it is worth describing. Did you go on overnight trips to play a game? Was it an all day activity? What happened after the game was over? Did you have access to lockers and showers or have to drive back hot and sweaty in your uniforms?
Finally, you might also discuss whether players on your team wanted to or expected to play Division 1 soccer in college and if that served as a motivation. It sounds like this took a lot of commitment. Why did the players want to provide that?
You also may want to consider how important practice was to your team's overall success. Most teams that actively experience winning perform well on the practice field and fully understand where their weaknesses and strengths are on the squad. Similarly, a team's cohesion in soccer partially relies on having played many games over an extended period of time with the same group. You could explain that your connection with your teammates and your subsequent success could be contributed to your playing experience together (previous playoff games, conference-deciding games, etc.)
ReplyDeletefor this exercise on successful teams, i myself wrote about a sports team that i played on. for me it was lacrosse and i was wondering how different sports affect the odds of a "successful" team. would you say that soccer is more of an individual sport than a team sport? i ask this because from what i know about soccer there are dominate players who seem to control the league. with lacrosse, it is such a new sport that the team cannot revolve around one player, it takes the whole team to be successful. i was just wondering if in your case, a team can be good, but one player can make it great.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the late responses guys, I wanted everyone to comment before I did. In terms of travel, Professor, travel soccer teams are not affiliated with high school soccer. It the next level down from professional/D1 soccer, essentially. The players I played with all are either playing professional or playing collegiate soccer.
ReplyDeleteYes I earned a spot via tryout. With an impeccable communication on the soccer field, you can effectively move the ball around all around the field, which is huge because with the soccer field being so large, you can tire the other team other. Additionally it allows every player on the field to be held accountable and it helps knowing if somebody is about to attack you from behind and your teammates make you aware of it.
Our positioning was similar to other teams I had played for, however, we are skill and the will to want to win. The team was about being part of something bigger than yourself, you sacrificed for your teammates in the sense that while we all were superb players, we needed to rely on each other to succeed.
The travel part was huge in the sense we stayed in hotels and bonded really well, we were all best friends from various parts of the state. I do believe that made us much better, we always stayed for two nights and played 2-3 games a weekend.
They wanted to reach the goal of D1 because many of these kids came from poor families and wanted to make a name for themselves and receive an education, others just wanted to make the next level and not stop playing soccer.
Alvin, we pracaticed 5 times a week, an hour away with the best coaches in the state. Our coaches were actually national team coaches for the United States U17 teams. As a group, we bonded very well and this could have also been a huge factor in our success.
Christopher, soccer is 100% a team sport, no individual can win a soccer game. It's too tiring and you can only dribble the ball so far. I am not sure where players dominate the league in soccer aside from a select few majestic players like Messi or Ronaldo who are considered the best ever.