The concept of team is a really interesting notion.
I’ve had the privilege of spending the last ten years
working with one of the world’s best sports teams,
the New Zealand’s All Blacks,
and it’s been a privilege.
And through that particular time
I’ve witnessed some things about the notion of team
and how we pull them together, I think,
that are very, very valuable and insightful for business.
Now, not too long ago
the All Blacks introduced a new haka
called“Kapa o Pango.”
And the genesis of this particular haka derived
because people were looking for a new way of expressing
what it meant to be a New Zealander
and what it meant to be an All Black.
Now, in the All Blacks we have a whole range of different cultures coming together.
We have Fijians; we have Maori;
we have Samoan; we have Pakeha.
We have a whole range of different cultures, and they come together,
and any one particular day
or campaign and unite under the New Zealand Silver Fern
and are able and asked to perform for that country on that given day.
So bringing those different cultures together is huge.
Now, we got some expert advice
from some Maori elders in the country
and we began to get an understanding that
once you live in New Zealand then you come from a different culture.
When you are buried in that soil,
whether you are Fijian, whether you are Samoan,
whether you’re a Tokelauan, whether you’re a Tongan,
whether you’re a Pakeha,
you become part of that earth
and for that reason you unite under Aotearoa,
and so all of a sudden,
when you pull that All Black jersey on
and that silver fern over your chest,
you become a new Zealander.
And having this explained in a way,
and having it composed into a new haka
was a wonderful unifying experience for the All Black team,
and it generates a wonderful power for the unit
and for the individual because they feel connected
so dearly and so deeply and so earthly to that country.
Now, when I see and I look at the corporate world,
and I look at the business world,
I see wonderful parallels between those two,
because an organization has people
from different cultures, different backgrounds, different experiences,
and what the role of the leader is,
in those particular occasions with those teams,
is to unite them in a common way
that enables them to mobilize
to commit their tasks
to make that particular organization
and that particular team function
and perform wonderfully on their stage.
So how do we deal with individuals in a team
who are going through the motions
and doing their tasks
in what we could sort of consider mundane?
I think the best definition of motivation
that I’ve ever heard
or that I’ve used in my work
is giving someone a reason for doing something.
And I think that quite often
when you are just going through the motions
you’ve lost sight of what that reason is.
So as a leader,
when I’m looking at individuals in my team,
I’m quite often asking myself,
“What is their reason?”
And if I want them to do something,
to take on a new project,
to do something a different way,
I’m always saying to myself,
“What’s the reason I can put out in front of them
that will make them hop into their car
or hop onto their bike
and work away in a committed
and passionate way at those tasks?”