The Sport that Moves the World

@KeepUpWithKaustubh

The road not taken in HR corridors

My house-help knows nothing about football, but she knows Neymar. This alarming fact is a consequence of all the little children in her slum wearing Neymar/Messi jerseys and brandishing posters of their beloved football heroes.

Football fever has gripped the world, and fever it is! Those chills through the body, sleepless nights, rising temperatures…and the urge to call in sick. And it’s as if the entire universe is conspiring to keep temperatures high; the media can’t stop talking of the World Cup, and we can’t get enough of it. Some legal, but mostly ‘unofficial’ merchandise around the Russia edition are flooding the streets. Little boys and girls in parks have traded in their cricket bats for some football action. The well-heeled, upper-middle-class sort are displaying their own symptoms – as the pubs run full and malls get empty.

Now why is the football world cup such a gripping phenomenon? I say it’s because it’s the equivalent of a blockbuster Bollywood movie but with one incredible difference – even the best minds can’t predict the ending. The mighty have started falling; defending champions Germany crashed out at the group level. Messi and Argentina bowed out. Ronaldo and Portugal bid teary goodbyes. Yet the Football World Cup remains as gripping as it has always been. Cleary the sport is bigger than it’s stars; an achievement that very few systems in the world can.

Apple fumbled in the aftermath of Steve Jobs, Infosys felt the heat after Narayan Murthy. Sean Connery fans still say that the James Bond franchise has never been the same after him, and Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig aren’t a patch on Connery. Even today, everywhere around us, leaders make or break the biggest organisations and the best teams. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if companies could take a leaf out of the football phenomenon, and rise above individual performers? How about developing purposeful, common goals that people across functions and levels could identify with and remain loyal to – no matter what changes around them.

Football isn’t just a sport, it is a patriotic, emotional and cultural phenomenon; it is the sport that moves the world. For companies, brands and people to embody the spirit of the sport, they have to rise above myopic goals and seek out a common purpose. They have to get their hands dirty and wear their emotions on their sleeves – the Senegal warm-up dance, the crazed celebrations runs after scoring goals, the melt-downs after misses are just some examples. That’s the intensity of emotion we are talking about. The idea is to go into every task as if this 90 minutes is our last chance to change the world, a chance that out life depends on.

In football, as in life, to the world you’re only as good as your last impression. Champions of today can be history tomorrow. This is more than the odd win, it’s the need to get on top and stay there. The football World Cup has historically seen defending champions mercilessly crash out in early stages. The latest victim of the trend has been Germany. So, are second chances weakening the performance fabric in the professional world? Are we too busy gloating over out past laurels to strive towards further glory? Can we make today the day where we decide the mimic what we have learnt from the World Cup and move on from victory to further victory, than move from victory to complacency. To me the key lesson is that even at our peak, we are champions of today, and not champions for life.

Look around you, everyone has an opinion on the ongoing World Cup. The die-hard fans are discussing techniques and signature moves, the geeks are discussing tech innovations, the news supplements are discussing the WAGs and football fashion, the kids are discussing who they want to grow up to be, while the septuagenarians are comparing current players with Pele. Everyone is emotionally invested in the matches in their own ways. Look at it from a non-football perspective. Imagine being able to run a company with people from diverse backgrounds and ages, and with varying interests. Imagine being able to engage with them all and yet form one unshakable common goal. The day leaders manage to achieve this, they will have created a business of true value for their people and for the community at large.

Apart from the serious aspects of the sport itself, look at the fanfare around it. Football is like a festival. There are stalls, dances, celebrations, a ‘stadium atmosphere’ that is incomparable. Millions of miles away from Russia people make plans to grab a couple of beers, order in pizza and watch the matches together. It brings people together in an atmosphere that gets the adrenalin going.

But the real gem is the simplicity of it all. At the heart of it, there are 11 players a side, one football and one goal. There is just one way to win and one ultimate destination - netting that goal! Why can’t life and business strive for the simplicity of a common goal, a common definition of winning, a common definition of good. Can there be one winning formula that everyone strives towards, individuals can contribute to this one grand vision, in an effort that will ensure that stars are born everyday? The World Cup will be over in a just a few days, but let’s not allow the fever to die down. Let’s just carry it forward and create a more meaningful environment.