The NFL this Weekend – Lessons in Alignment
When talking about team alignment, let’s not make it more complicated then it need be. Hyping it up with terms like “Buying In”, “Synthesized Collaboration” or the totally incomprehensible “To Achieve Clear Compelling, Strategic, Healthy, Productive and Purposeful Goals” heard by most participants in team building workshops as a “Blah Blah Blah” objective. Pictures are worth a thousand words and moving pictures (videos etc.) and people may be worth a million.
We point to the NFL Conference Champion games this weekend because it is usually the best weekend of football and one of the purest examples
Team Commitment Happens Before the Coin Toss
of team alignment we get to see in action. Most of us admire sports teams and football teams in this country have the most team alignment challenges you will likely encounter in any organization anywhere. Each game is like executing a one year strategic plan that has been compressed into sixty minutes, where feedback, collaboration, creativity and coaching happen in real time. When the team (all 45 players) takes to the field there can be no question about buying in or understanding the goal — which is always winning the game. The question is did they spend enough time working on their being aligned, do they know where they need to be when each play is called, do they know their role in every given situation.
Football and chess, the perfect game is a draw! There will be no draws this Sunday! There will be two champions this weekend (NFC and AFC) and these teams will have won because they were the best aligned. Sure some things will look like luck had a hand in the results of the game and we counter that with only people and teams who are the best prepared can benefit from luck.
Our company Triad West prepares corporate teams to be Aligned, let’s talk and see how we can help you.
Dr. Joel P Martin
