WICB: Accept responsibility for failures

by DR RUDI WEBSTER

Many years ago, I discussed off-field teamwork and leadership with Peter Brock, Australia’s most successful racing car driver and tried to identify the differences between motor racing and other sports in those two areas. Brock said that in motor racing the driver’s safety and life depends on the performance of the back up team and that it is impossible to win unless you have a good, cohesive, and supportive team behind you.

Brock thought that in other sports, there were too many selfish and bigheaded people in positions of authority who placed their own interests, survival and reputation above the goals of their club. He felt that they were reluctant or afraid to examine their key motives and hardly ever looked objectively or honestly at their own performance. He also thought that they were too thin-skinned and much too sensitive to criticism.

The recent exercise to restructure the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) was a commendable effort. As a young boy, I was taught that form and structure should follow purpose and function. It is not smart to build an elephant and then ask it to fly. If you want to design something that will fly, build a structure like a kite, an airplane, a bird or a rocket.

Before attempting to restructure administrative and other off-field teams, sports organizations should answer three very important questions.

First, where are we going – our vision or picture of what we want to achieve or become?  Second, what do we believe in – our most important values and principles? Imprinting those values into the minds of the members by consistently showing, not just telling, what their team stands for is critical. Third, what do we exist for - our purpose or the reason for our existence?  Honest and precise answers will not just influence the performance of the team, but also its strength and spirit.

General George S. Patton once said, “Wars are fought with weapons but are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and the man who leads that gains victory.”

In the last ten years or so the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has been operating in an adversarial and combative mode. This is an ideal method for fighting and winning arguments and petty battles and for demonstrating power and control, but it is not an efficient way to build a good organization or improve organizational performance. The WICB might say that they had to adopt this combative attitude because they are operating in a hostile environment that was created by forces outside the board and had to fight fire with fire. That might be true in some respects, but WICB must understand that they are the leaders of West Indies cricket and must not just react to circumstances. They must lead. They must change those circumstances, design creative solutions, perform competently, and lead by example.

George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright, once said, “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, they make them.”

The WICB should take heed of the wisdom of Lee Kwan Yew a former leader of Singapore. He was the person who literally performed a miracle in the amazing development of Singapore. Board members ought to read and follow his advice closely. He said on China CCTV on June 12, 2005, “In spite of our small size (Singapore) we can perform a role that will be useful in the world. To do that you will need people at the top, decision-makers who have got foresight and good minds; people who are open to ideas, who can seize opportunities like we did … My job really was to find my successors. I found them, they are there; their job is to find their successors. So there must be continuous renewal of talented, dedicated, honest, able people who will do things not for themselves but for their people and their country. If they can do that, they will carry on for another one generation and so it goes. The moment that breaks, it’s gone.”  

If WICB is honest, it will admit that things in those areas have been broken for a very long time.

To succeed in today's complex sports world, the WICB must move away from its old and inefficient style of leadership and find a better one. It could use a model that is built on four interconnected and interdependent pillars - self-mastery, team synergy, continuous learning and sustainable development.

All good leadership starts with self-leadership, self-mastery, honesty with self and competence. Team synergy, the second pillar, is about choosing the right people, blending expertise, motivation, team spirit and teamwork. The third pillar is continuous learning.  Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. When leaders and teams stop learning they stop! Smart leaders and teams are always trying to learn new things and find better ways to improve performance.

The fourth pillar is sustainable development. This includes such things as transparency and accountability, respect for the game, respect for the environment in which the game is played, respect for authority, respect for the rights of the players, and an awareness of responsibilities to spectators, sponsors, stakeholders and country.

Organizational excellence is only as good as the performance of individual members and only as good as its internal and external communication. Over the years the players have been examined with a fine-tooth comb and have borne most of the blame for the state of West Indies cricket. The board has never had that kind of scrutiny and that has at times led to arrogance, haughtiness, and uncaring and insensitive behaviour.

The board must now step up to the plate, accept responsibility for its substandard performance and design ways to improve it. It can start by answering the three questions that were posed earlier – where are we going, what do we believe in, and what do we exist for?  

Only through good leadership and teamwork can an organization or nation get the best out of its people, and be greater than the sum of its parts.  That is a lesson the board must learn.