Last week was about gymnastics and knowing your center.  This week’s entry is inspired by a conversation I had with a friend and looks at teamwork, trust, and empowerment by looking at Olympic soccer vs. little kid soccer.  Have you ever watched little kids play soccer?  When they aren’t picking blades of grass for no reason they are all running after the ball.  The entire team runs in a huddle in the direction of the ball with all of them trying their best to kick it in the direction of the goal.  There’s no passing.  No teamwork.  Just a mass of kids chasing a ball around, because everyone thinks they have to kick the ball.

Contrast that image with Olympic soccer.  In higher levels of soccer you don’t see a herd of people running after the ball.  Over time the individuals have proven that they excel at soccer, so instead of a mass of people chasing a ball, the individuals play their positions.  They have trust in their teammates to play their roles.  The individuals on the team are empowered to do what they need to do in order to help the team win.  Individuals perform their role, playing defense and offense, shifting and moving, passing and scoring.  This all comes together to execute the team’s game plan, which eventually leads to a win.

What does soccer have to do with work?  How often do you work on something only to have it checked on by a million people at every step?  People come out of the woodwork to look at your stuff and offer feedback, even if you don’t ask for the feedback.  If you think about it, this is kind of like kids playing soccer, where everyone is moving in a herd chasing a ball, so everyone can kick it.  How effective and efficient is it?  Contrast this with the times where you’ve been on teams where you were truly empowered and trusted to do your job.  Think of the times you have had freedom to roam, play your position, and then bring things back to the team when it made sense to do so.  How much better is your engagement in these situations?  How much better is your work?

In a consensus based culture it’s easy to fall into the habit of giving everyone the chance to touch everything, but is that really the best thing for us?  Is it really the best thing for patients?  The challenge: Are you truly trusting and empowering those around you or are you forcing everyone to run and kick the ball?

Have a jolly good day and go team USA,

Andrew Embry