Prime Minister John Key summed up the mood of the nation nicely when he said he felt a mixture of jubilation and relief as the All Blacks managed to hold on for a 1 point win over France in the final of the Rugby World Cup at Eden Park to claim the Webb Ellis Trophy for only the second time in its 24-year history.

While we didn’t see the best of the All Blacks in the final, they managed to hold off a passionate French side in order to secure a long awaited victory. There is no doubt their mind-set, while absent and inappropriate in terms of attack, enabled them to maintain sufficient composure to keep a fired up French side from stealing a win late in the second half.

Despite widespread derision amongst the French team, captain Thierry Dusautoi led his team in characteristic fashion throughout the entire match and in doing so, secured his nomination for World Player of the Year. Likewise, and deservedly so, the AB’s won Team of the year for the 5th time and Graham Henry was named World Coach of the Year - also for the 5th time.

 

Capitalising on the AB’s success

Promoters of world sporting events say the reason countries should pitch for the privilege of hosting an international sporting event is because of the unique opportunities they bring to show case their nation and capabilities to a global audience and at the same time to harness the feel good factor that generally accompanies such events.

While research carried out by the Sport Industry Research Centre (SIRC) at Sheffield Hallam University (Sheffield, UK) shows the potential for hosting countries to gain measurable economic benefits, very few nations ever manage to capitalise on the occasion as anticipated. Why this is the case has been debated many times but in my opinion the reason benefits tend to fall short of expectation is twofold; firstly because the capital investment required to build the necessary infrastructure to host such an event often proves unusable to ratepayers after it has finished and secondly, because the organisers (and more importantly the governing party) fail to unite the nation around a sense of purpose (future vision) meaning they fail to enable their citizens to deepen their engagement and thus their commitment and productivity to their respective causes.

As an interested observer, it is lovely to see New Zealanders sharing the jubilation with our man of the moment Richie McCaw. To see him holding the cup aloft as they made their way up Queen Street (and again in Christchurch and Wellington) gave us hope and reason to believe we as the inhabitants of our small and isolated islands could do something similar, despite all that we have endured. As Brad Thorn said, they did this not just for themselves, but for the nation (albeit it is only because of the support of the nation that they have the opportunity to pursue what they love to do) meaning it may be worth thinking about what we may like to do on the back of their achievement.

 

Incidentally, researchers at the SIRC say the benefits of hosting an event such as the Rugby World Cup are notable in terms of both international recognition i.e. trading nations are more likely to engage more enthusiastically with a country that has proven itself on the international stage than one that hasn’t - presumably because they assume the capabilities and attributes that enabled a team to succeed on the world stage are common throughout that nation - and secondly because the so called ‘feel good factor’ that typically follows is likely to cause people to feel better about themselves because of their connection with their country (or winning team) and thus encourage them to improve the quality of their productivity and contribution.

 

To help you leverage the occasion here is a number of questions you and/or your team may like to ask yourselves:

• What do you believe the AB’s did differently this time around that enabled them to win the World Cup?
• What characteristics and/or attributes stood out to you that you believe proved vital in them securing the win?
• What would happen (do you believe), if you and your team developed such characteristics or attributes and/or applied such an approach?
• Do you believe you would perform better (and thus gain a different outcome) if your team applied themselves with a similar commitment and/or conviction as shown by the All Blacks?
• What do you believe you could achieve if you did?
• Would you gain benefits that would change your future as an organisation if you did?
• Is there any reason why you can’t (as a company) leverage this idea in order to commence a new era in terms of performance?

The fact is, while ‘our’ men did the job on the field as we hoped they would, they need us to do the job at work if we as a nation are to capitalise on the benefits of hosting (and indeed winning) this event and in turn, leverage the feel good factor they created in order to build a more competent, engaged and successful workforce. In other words, if we as individuals rally our people, we as a nation will experience tangible benefits; but only if we use the occasion to initiate a deeper conversation with our staff in order to give them a greater sense of purpose and thus a more compelling vision they can be a part of. If on the other hand we fail to capture the mood, the mood will eventually pass meaning we as a nation will watch the occasion fade without ever realising what we’ve missed.

Regrettably, many seem to think the positive sentiment will rub off on their business and therefore leave its mark. Yes I agree a more positive conversation is likely to take place amongst our team, and yes that will be welcomed, however I am far from convinced this conversation will enable us to take a real step forward unless it is consciously and deliberately driven by our leaders. If you believe your people are a key to your company’s success, you need to both inspire and enable them to advance. Therefore, can you use the AB’s success as a catalyst to help you achieve this?

It seems therefore appropriate for me to ask you what you are going to do to ensure the RWC proves useful to your business. For example, are you going to be one of the few organisations who manage to capitalise on the AB’s success or will you be one of the masses who enjoyed the experience while it was here but see it as nothing more than a tournament we hosted that did little or nothing for you?

If too many of us fall into the second camp, we can almost guarantee the long term benefits will go unrealised. Furthermore, statisticians will tally the numbers in terms of dollars spent verses dollars lost and come to the conclusion it was great at the time, given all we’ve been through, but other than a temporary ‘relief’, it did nothing to kick start a new era in terms of growth or improvement meaning it will do nothing to stimulate anything of greater significance.

Irrespective of where you sit, even if you would chose to say it differently, I would like to say ‘thank you’ to the New Zealand Rugby Union for your foresight in bidding for the rights to host this tournament. Thank you to Martin Sneedon and his crew (including the many volunteers) for organising a tremendous event that enabled us to not only showcase our nation like never before, but to enable us to stand together as both hosts and supporters and indeed as a nation of different peoples.

Thank you Graham Henry and your coaching and management staff for not only equipping ‘our’ team with the goods to lift the trophy, but for enabling them to do so with dignity and honour and finally to Richie McCaw and the team for showing us what is possible if we put our minds to something we believe in (as you did) in order to achieve something special. You have done us proud. You won what has become the most important tournament to us as a nation and in return, you have given us an opportunity to stand up and be counted – to make a difference. Whether we do or not, we know it will ultimately be our choice.

 

 

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