SaaS: Software as a Sports team

“That power and emotion is our game. Because our identity is intensity. That comes back in every drill.” source

Liverpool FC have become the world’s best football team following these ideas. I wonder if teams outside of sports could benefit from behaving more like sports teams.

That’s not an original question. Bill Walsh’s encyclopedia of how he led the San Francisco 49ers to American football elite is a resource for achieving sports greatness, which he claims has lessons for business. Other sports coaches have written leadership books and claim the same.

In trying to explain why sports team performance and the performance of small team building something are very different, I found that I agree with the coaches; the two look similar when you aim for an ideal team. But still I find it difficult to define the drills, processes, and attitudes that lead to maximum performance of that builder team.

Many companies might argue that’s what their company culture and mission statements are for. But I doubt many companies match Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool or Bill Walsh and the 49ers. I’ve never felt I work in a place that feels like how I imagine Liverpool FC feels like.

If we do try to emulate them we need to define the practices to follow. To do that we need to know what the team is aiming for and what each team member is aiming for.

Both of those are not obvious. The rules of football don’t change every season but the rules of the startup might. What processes does the team as a whole need to follow for elite performance in something that may very rapidly become something else?

For an individual who builds technology is it clear what skills they should be perfecting? Perhaps the profession fundamentals need to be drilled constantly. But again, their role may need to change very soon. What if we follow sport’s example and say nothing passes unless it reaches the highest standards? But we build prototypes, we don’t even know that we need this. What then is the standard of work we need to hold each role to? When do we set the bar sky high and when not?

I don’t know yet but I think there is a lot to be learned from sports so will try to test it out.