Are you playing a team sport that you don't understand?

How Team Sports Make Us Better Team Players at Work and Beyond

One thing I love about sports is that it is very clear what success looks like. It doesn’t matter how many players are on a team. Each team member knows the rules of the game, they know how score is kept, and how a winner is decided. The rest is up to each team's strategy and execution.

If you are into football (Soccer), you know that for a team to win it needs to score more goals than the opposing team. Also, you must already know the governing rules around how the game is played. Like that only the goal keepers are allowed to touch the ball with their hands. Dangerous play is prohibited and comes with yellow or red cards. These rules are not negotiable and are what govern the game. What remains to each team is to decide their strategy for the game and then start executing on it.

Tactics

When I first started playing football as a little kid. I was clear on the definition of success. Scoring more goals was what would make my team win. The same level of understanding applied to the other kids. Beyond that, we didn’t know anything about how to play the game as a team. So with a clear goal in mind, we all started running in all directions chasing the ball and hoping to somehow end up scoring goals to win the game.

100 kids playing against 3 adult football players

After a lot of effort from our coach, we started to understand that playing like that was not a recipe for winning. Our coach then started teaching us the micro basics of playing the game. These are the tactics that apply to any football game and strategy. I’m talking here about football basics like how to pass the ball to a teammate, how to sprint with a ball, and how to precisely kick the ball towards a specific point.

Strategy & Roles

Only after mastering the basic tactics, the coach started explaining to us the game strategy and what role each one of us will fill. The coach assigned me the Sweeper (Libro) role. Each other player got assigned a role. Then we started practicing to master the responsibilities of our new roles, and how to play together as a team based on that strategy.

That was a huge improvement. We were no more running aimlessly around the football field like headless chickens. Each player knew what positions to hold during the game. During both offence and defence.

However, things were not that perfect. We all knew that scoring goals is what gets most celebrated by everyone. Deep inside, everyone of us wanted to be the star that scores the goals. Even though that we knew what role each one of us should play during the game, still most of us left our positions empty and went into the opponent team’s side of the field hoping to score a goal.

This lack of discipline caused us to lose many games. The football field is huge. Running longer distances cost us a lot of precious energy. Which made it harder for us to fulfil our duties properly. It also meant that we had weakness points that other teams identified and used to score goals.

Only by getting over our egos, and realising that this is a team sport, and winning is all about how we play efficiently as a team. Only then we started to win games.

What do you take away from this story?

• Know what game your team is playing and how a winning team is decided.
  In sports everyone knows the rules of the game and what success is like. At work, this might not be as obvious. If you don’t know, make sure to ask. If you are the manager, make sure to remind everyone what success/winning should look like
  

• Master your craft. Even the micro details matter.
  Whatever your role is, know that it is very important for the success of the team. So become an expert at the role you play and master all the tactics that can help you play better
  

• Have a team strategy and a plan for the game you play.
  A team of superstar players is nothing without a great strategy and a plan that utilises the skills of each player properly. Don’t just copy the strategy of another team blindly. You might be playing under different conditions, with different resources, and different priorities.
  

• Kill your ego and play for the team.
  Play the role that gets assigned to you. If it is assigned to you, know that it is important, even if it might seem to you as a less shiny role.
  

• [one more thing …] Never forget that the goal is to help the team win the game.
  Executing your role well doesn’t matter if your team still loses the game. So take ownership of filling whatever gaps you see in the team’s execution

To clarify what I meant in the last point. Check this 32 seconds video. Wayne Rooney (Number 9) is a well known English striker. During this game, he was playing for D.C. United against Orlando. Both are American teams. The scores were 2 - 2. These were the last few minutes of the game. So it would take only one more goal to decide who is the winner. Watch the video!

As you have seen. Even though that Rooney was the striker, when his team’s goal was under attack, Rooney sprinted as hard as he can to chase the other team’s striker. He tackled the other player. Captured the ball, and started a counter-attack. This ended up making the deciding goal that made Rooney’s team win the game.

Even though that this seems obvious in the context of sports, you would be shocked to know how many of us prioritise doing their role as described exactly in the best practices book, over trying to understand the situation that their team is operating in, to find more creative ways to deliver on what would really make the team win.

Team sports are a lot of fun. They don’t only challenge our abilities as individuals. They also challenge how we collaborate with other humans.