The next great team

It's an amazing thing to build a great team and achieve success. What's much harder is to keep that success going. Sports teams provide a few apt examples.

As a Liverpool fan, it grates mightily to use this example, but... Sir Alex Ferguson was manager of Manchester United football club from 1986 to 2013. When he first took over, the club was second from bottom in a league of 22 teams. By the end of the season, he had hauled them to 11th. Even after that, success didn't quickly materialise. It was 1993, seven years after his appointment, and after many ups and downs, that Manchester United finally ended their 26-year wait to be league champions again.

Though his 1993 breakthrough success was fantastic, what was even more amazing was that he kept the club successful for another twenty years after that. Ferguson continously rebuilt and refreshed his teams, succeeding goalkeeper Schmeichel with van de Sar; transitioning from the stoic defence led by Bruce and Pallister, to the modern pairing of Ferdinand and Stam; transforming the midfield of Keane, Scholes, Giggs and Beckham to Carrick, Fletcher and Hargreaves; evolving the attack of Cantona and Hughes to Cole and Yorke, and later, Ronaldo and Rooney. Despite the many changes in personnel, Sir Alex Ferguson created and perpetuated a culture that accepted nothing less than the best.

The San Antonio Spurs of the American National Basketball Association also had an incredible run of eighteen consecutive seasons of 50-win seasons from 1999-2017, twenty-two consecutive seasons of qualifying for the post-season playoffs from 1997-2019, and six championships over three different decades - 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014. They transitioned from the the "Twin Towers" championship teams of David Robinson and Tim Duncan, to the "Big Three" championship core of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, and then to the Kawhi Leonard-led winners of 2014.

The San Antonio Spurs' longevity and success is particularly notable because the NBA is specifically designed to level the playing field and make it near impossible to build long-lasting dynasties. Salary caps prevent teams from hoarding all the best talent. The annual NBA draft allocates the best college talent to the worst NBA teams. So what coach Gregg Popovich has managed to do with the Spurs during his leadership from 1996 to date, is quite incredible. He too created a culture of unrelenting excellence.

The same applies to companies. We do our best to build up our people, and sometimes, if we do a good enough job, they do well, the team does well, and the company does well. But no matter how well we do, people naturally come and go, through a combination of timing and circumstance. It's also a fact of life that Father Time comes for us all, and we grow older! 

We're sad when colleagues who've fought alongside us move on. We miss and are grateful to the people who helped us, and who we helped. We look back with pride on the great things we did together. But now, having wished them the very very best in their next move, we have to figure out, how do we build that next great team?

The same also applies to our Christian community. We learn to love each other, build each other up, pray for each other, and spur each other on to good deeds. Unlike a company, members of this community typically don't (or at least, shouldn't) pull up their stakes, wave goodbye and move on. But even here, we have to shake things up and readjust, so that there's new life and dynamism. We all also grow older. So we have to keep building that next great team here too. Otherwise in one or two short generations, a once-alive community will inevitably age, slow in momentum, and edge towards irrelevance.

A few things occur to me. First - it's much easier to build the next great team if there is a good degree of continuity, based on a small core group of people, who are committed to work alongside each other and get it done, again. These experienced hands are a repository for our values, they know what it feels like to be great, and they remember how we got there, both the good and the bad decisions along the way.

Rebuilding and refreshing a team is hard. That's why there are so few examples of it in real life. Having people who can bridge the gap between generations really helps. For the Spurs, it was Tim Duncan, who transitioned from budding star to franchise centerpiece to elder statesman. For Manchester United, it was the likes of Giggs, Scholes and Neville. These stars' long term commitment to the cause helped their teams become great, and then manage to do the even harder thing, stay great.

Second - however many good people we have, it's important to keep refreshing things. In his book "Built to Last", James Collins wrote "When in doubt, vary, change, solve the problem, seize the opportunity, experiment, try something new (consistent of course, with the core ideology) - even if you can't predict precisely how things will turn out. Do something. If one thing fails, try another. Fix. Try. Do. Adjust. Move. Act. No matter what, don't sit still."

Don't sit still. Identify the next group of great people. Give the people who are already here, and the people who aren't here yet, the chance to lead, to do things even they didn't know they could do. Some will work out, some won't. Some will stick with it, some won't. Some will fit the timeline, some won't. But give them all the opportunity. Give them the chance to be great, to make the team great, and to keep greatness going.

Gregg Popovich changed his offense which was centred around superstar David Robinson at the high post, to accommodate Tim Duncan on the low post. Popovich couldn't stand the creative Ginobili at first, because he kept messing up his disciplined ball schemes. But he soon realised this was a change that helped the team, so he integrated Ginobili into his "Big Three" scheme. It was this willingness to continuously evolve the method (how to play), while retaining the purpose (win the game), that kept the Spurs successful for so long. I particularly love the picture above of Ginobili and Popovich - Popovich paternally inducting Ginobili into his philosophy, and Ginobili thoughtfully absorbing.

Sir Alex Ferguson was much more ruthless, moving on the likes of club heroes Keane, Beckham and Stam. He shipped out top scorer Andy Cole when van Nistelrooy became available. He moved van Nistelrooy when Ronaldo emerged. Yikes. I'm not sure that many people have the stomach for this level of cold-bloodedness, or if any success is ever worth that much relationship stress! Still, the point remains - change is often essential.

Finding that balance of rewarding and relying on a reliable core, while refreshing and energizing with new blood is the tricky bit. Wholesale change creates unnecessary disruption, and creates little confidence in our people for the future - why would anyone trust you in the long term if we think we could get shipped out on a whim? On the other hand, the lack of change stultifies and eventually petrifies - who would back an inward looking, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" team?

In this season of change and transition Lord, give me wisdom. To not just solve problems, but understand people. Teach me to love, teach me to nurture. Make me humble, not proud. Enable me to be grateful, not irritable. Cause me to be courageous, not dithering. I look forward to seeing where you bring us, not with any confidence in myself, but simple faith in You, the One who knows the Way.

"Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading"
Oswald Chambers

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens;
A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot;
A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build;
A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance;
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away;
A time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak;
A time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

... He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, 11

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