All Black Magic

As a lifelong rugby fanatic and someone who's massively intrigued by what makes people and teams tick, I was delighted to catch up last week with an old pal of mine Jamie Hamilton who has been part of the All Black coaching set up for over 7 years.

I went along to try to get an insiders view of what sets the New Zealand All Blacks apart from other teams and to try to understand the drive behind their culture. They are, in my opinion (along with many other observers), the most consistently successful sporting team in history and whilst others may have caught them up over recent years, they remain the gold (or black) standard that others aim for.

There's a great book written by James Kerr called Legacy (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Legacy-James-Kerr/dp/147210353X_) that attempts to capture the essence of the All Blacks success and translate the learnings into a business context and it's well worth a read.

It has 224 pages and it's full of fabulous insights and anecdotes, and for me, it boils down to 2 fascinating snippets, which are both very simple and immediately applicable to every team whether sporting or business.

They admit that they "borrowed" the first from the Sydney Rabbitohs Rugby League team:

"No Dickheads"

Pretty straightforward, huh? It doesn't matter how good you are as a player, you are not acting alone. You're part of the All Blacks and your sole responsibility is to help the team achieve success. Be humble, be confident, speak up, listen and positively play your part. No-one is bigger than the team. No-one.

"Sweep the sheds"

In the southern hemisphere the changing rooms are often referred to as "The Sheds" and the rule within the All Blacks is that collectively you leave the sheds cleaner than when you arrived. It makes no difference how many caps you have, what position you play, how many points you've scored, whether you're won or lost, training session or match day - sweep the sheds. Be humble, be confident, show respect, pitch in, play your part. No-one is bigger than the team. No-one. (I know I'm repeating myself)

Every member of the squad works to maintain and uphold the agreed values and behaviours of the group and everyone holds themselves and their team-mates accountable.

Much as I wanted to discover some closely guarded secrets and to gain an exclusive insight, I was massively impressed by just how guarded Jamie was about the inner workings of the team and his reluctance to divulge any unpublished gems.

That spoke volumes to me about loyalty and trust.

There's a great little expression that Jamie did share with me: "The (sloppy) standard you walk past, is the standard that you accept."

All the squad members understand what they've signed up to and they don't want to let anyone down - not themselves and definitely not their team-mates.

As I always say, the great news about team building is that no-one needs brain surgery or a PhD in Astrophysics to make it work.

If you're interested in learning more about how to get your team rocking and rolling, please contact me at stuart@abetterversion.co.uk or call me on 07970 250300 and we can have a chat.