Lessons learnt while playing for England

This weekend will be my first England training camp of 2023. In fact, it will be the first time I have seen the team since we won gold at the European Touch Rugby Championships in August last year.

The time away has given me a chance to reflect and compare it to my other passion, product innovation. What has become evident is the strong correlation between the two, and how I can take the lessons from one and transfer them to the other.

Below are some of my thoughts on this:

Baby steps

We first got together as a team 15 months before the tournament. We spent weekends training in different parts of the country, there was a host of Zoom calls and countless videos and worksheets to study. By the time we got to the tournament, we were prepared with a huge array of moves at our disposal. For anyone looking at our playbook, it seemed incredibly daunting.

However, it didn’t start that way. Initially we focussed on just three basic moves. We practiced them until they were second nature. Next, we added a variation to each of those moves, and they too became second nature. From three moves, we went up to six. We repeated that again, and again, each time taking baby steps to build on what we were already comfortable with, while increasing our repertoire of options. By the time we came to the tournament, we had a fantastic playbook for us to work from.

Product innovation is similar. Often, when we look at what we want to achieve, it can seem complicated and daunting. It is hard to know where to start. I believe the best approach is to take it back down to the basics and build up from there. What is the most basic and core functionality that you can build, and then iteratively make improvements. Start off with the simplest ‘move’ you can think of, your foundation, build it and grow it from there. ?

The best laid plans…

In addition to building our playbook, we also analysed our opposition, finding video footage where we could, or using previous knowledge of particular players and teams. All of this led to fantastic preparation for the tournament.

However, not everything goes according to plan. Teams will adjust their play, or a referee will control the game in an unexpected way.?

This is when the OODA loop comes in. It is a technique that was taught to us by a former Olympic athlete. During play you need to ‘Observe’, ‘Orientate’, ‘Decide’ and ‘Action’ (OODA). In other words, continue to monitor the game, don’t just take it for granted your plan will work as expected. If you see something shifting, reorientate your thinking to understand what is happening, make a decision, and put it into action. This may occur several times during a game, especially if the opposition subsequently adjust to counter your new strategy.?

There is a strong correlation here with product innovation. It starts with a plan on what we aim to achieve, but knowing we will have to be flexible on how we get there. The only thing you can expect in innovation is the unexpected. That is the nature of innovation, simply because no-one has done it before. For that reason, you need to constantly monitor your progress (observe), orientate if something changes, decide what to do and make it happen (action).

The Messy Middle

The Euros was an intense and demanding tournament that consisted of 12 games over five days.

Day one is incredible. After several months of training and preparation, it has finally arrived. Opening ceremony, getting your match day kit on and starting the campaign. The finals day is also unbelievable. The nerves of a knockout competition, a semi-final and a final, and a chance to win gold. ?

However, the days in between can be tough. Some games don’t go your way, fatigue starts to set in and players get injured. This is what is known as the ‘messy middle’. In The High Performance podcast, psychology professor Damian Hughes outlines five stages of a journey; dream, leap, fight, climb and arrive. It is at the fight stage, or what is also known as the ‘messy middle’, when it's at its hardest and you just push on through, despite how you are feeling and the setbacks you suffer.

The same is true for product innovation. The most exciting phase is coming up with the initial idea (dream), and then getting started (leap). Sometime down the road it will start to get tough. Some of the initial assumptions you made are proven incorrect, you may need to change strategy, maybe you are having problems with your team, or you are running low on funding. This is the messy middle, and being able to get through this phase is often what separates those that succeed and those that don’t. Just knowing that the messy middle exists can be incredibly helpful. When times are tough, and your plans are not going accordingly, if you believe in what you are doing, just push on and you will get there. As Damian Hughes says, “these obstacles are part of the journey’.

This article is already longer than I had anticipated, and I feel I have more to share. I will keep it for another day though. I hope you have found it useful.