Madden, Obama, Springsteen - and an innovation mindset

I’ve been thinking, during this quiet period between Christmas and New Year, about evolution.

Specifically, the evolution of new ideas, and the mindset required to achieve them.

Why is this mindset important, how is it achieved, who has it? What can we learn from those who have it? How can this be applied to our daily lives?

These thoughts were sparked by a couple of books I’m reading - both Christmas gifts - and then reinforced by today’s obituaries for John Madden, the legendary NFL coach and broadcaster.

The two books:

• “Evolution of the Game” by Frank Francisco covers the earliest origins of American Football and documents how the game developed to the one we know today
• “Renegades - Born in the USA” - a wonderful book by Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen which captures (and builds upon) the transcripts of the podcast series they did together this year

When I picked up “Evolution of the Game” and read about the origins of American Football in Ivy League colleges in the mid-to-late 19th century, it was a reminder that the sport was hardly created as the made-for-TV product we see today. It required many people to see something worth improving, and to build on the work of those who went before.

It made me realise that sports, as we know and love them today. do not have a clear historical start point - and they certainly should not be considered complete.

Those involved in American Football in, say, the 1940s moved the sport on considerably from the version played in the 1870s, but sitting here now in 2021, we know they had not finished it, because the version played in the 1940s looks nothing like today's football.

It therefore follows than none of our sports will currently, in 2021, look like they will by the end of this century. Our duty is to improve our sports, ready for passing them on to future generations, who will have a duty to improve them again, and ensure their ongoing viability. The only way we can do this is with an open-mindedness to new ideas (and the critical eye to build on them and improve them).

Meanwhile, I read in “Renegades” the transcript of a speech Barack Obama gave in 2015 at the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery marches. The speech, as always with Obama, is incredible and worth your time in full, but one line in particular lodged in my head and has stayed there ever since.

“It’s the idea held by generations of citizens who believed that America is a constant work in progress” - Barack Obama, 2015

These simple words carry incredible meaning: if even a global superpower is a “constant work in progress” according to its President at the time, isn’t everything?

A closed mindset looks at something and considers it done. Anything from one of the world’s greatest nations to a simple game - you see something and you decide you like it how it is, and therefore you resist anything that threatens to make it look different.

How powerful, though, to change your mindset to one where nothing is complete and everything can be improved.

As we head into 2022, the more of us that adopt this mindset, the better our organisations, our sectors, and even the world, might be.

Instead of resisting new ideas, because we like things to stay the same as they were when we first discovered them (even though that was just one moment in time, a speck in history) what can we achieve with an open-mindedness to emerging concepts, the critical eye needed to improve them, and the restlessness that comes from seeing things as unfinished, and as things that can be built upon, improved?

In the sectors I work across - the global sports industry, and technology - this mindset is needed more than ever.

We are about to lead the sports industry into web3 - when everything will change, nothing can be taken for granted, and an open-mindedness will be more critical than ever.

The technology which is setting the tone for the earliest days of web3 - blockchain, crypto, NFTs, metaverse - won’t be for everyone. I get that. But as John Madden proved, the greats are generally those who are receptive to new ideas.

What do Madden, Springsteen and Obama have in common, other than being American males born across a 25-year span of the 20th century (1936, 1949, 1961 respectively)?

My answer - they’re all world-class communicators from three different fields (politics, music, broadcasting). Being a world-class communicator means listening, understanding the world around you, and then being able to connect to people with your vision for how things can be improved.

Obama wanted to change his country for the better, and along the way showed himself to be one of the great orators of all time. Springsteen had a world view to convey and became one of the great storytellers in music history. Madden had three different careers - coaching, broadcasting, and the video game franchise that bears his name - and across all three of those, he had a gift for connecting with millions of people, using language and personality.

Madden also embraced the new - he became a broadcasting great because he explained NFL games through the eyes of a Hall of Fame coach, but also because he adopted new technology, becoming an early pioneer of the telestrator which allowed him to draw on our TV screens and enhance our understanding.

He also embraced the Madden video game - not just lending his name but actually delaying its launch in the 1980s because he was so insistent on how realistic it should look and feel.

An open-mindedness to new concepts. A critical eye on how they can be improved. A desire to change things for the better, and pass them along, because almost everything can - and should - be seen as a work in progress.

These are inspirational thoughts for me as we head into a new year. A year where many of us will be challenged multiple times by new technologies and forced to ask ourselves: how can this be improved and then applied?

Our sports are not finished. Our technology is not finished. Our work is not done. We as individuals have improvements still to make. I for one will be embracing the mindsets of people I admire, as I look to adapt and improve what I do, and as we at Seven League and IMG prepare the sports industry for an exhilarating future.

Because, by the way, you know who would’ve loved the thought of a metaverse where we could all watch our favourite sports league, team and athletes, and interact with the events in real-time, as we watch them? John Madden. If nothing else, maybe we owe it to him to build this thing. As he would say, BOOM!