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Rondo, Rondo, Rondo

The sports pages are awash with stories about the success of the Spanish football team with opinions flying across the broad sheets as to how lessons can be learned for the England team. The Tipster has been particularly impressed by the emphasis on the concept of Rondo which is a system of high intensity circular passing and is developed by using set drills, delivered at an early age to develop the skills of children coming through the academy ranks.

The Tipster was equally impressed by a quote from Real Madrid’s technical coach, José Morais who stated “Some players are very skilled at a young age. Perhaps you can call them gifted. But they will not improve, and will certainly not become world class, unless they practice with passion and efficiency. Even youngsters who lack skill can develop outstanding ability if they are taught in the right way”.

This has inspired The Tipster who at the age of 45 still holds out for a career in the professional game, but let us put that to one side and think about how we can apply the lessons to the modern workforce.

It is often the case (and it is very easily done, let’s be honest in a world where there is talk of downsizing, recession and cuts) to fail to use this time as an opportunity to develop skills within a team. Often we like to categorise people by stating “they are good at this but bad at that” but fail to look at why they are weak in a particular area and what else we can do to improve them in the areas where they are skilled.

One of the things that worries The Tipster is the waste of talent and ability within organisations largely due to economic pressures or sometimes (and let’s be very honest) through managers struggling with their management skills. This can lead to people not fulfilling their potential and companies not getting the best from individuals who they thought were the bees knees when they first arrived. Often when it comes to redundancies, redundancy is used as an excuse or camouflage for dismissal to get rid of what is seen as “dead wood”

The recent emphasis in the Employment Tribunals on employers looking for suitable alternative employment at times of redundancy really gets us back to basics. Perhaps there are greater opportunities to utilise the skills of employees who could be walking out the door if, in the first instance, companies adopted an approach of “high skill development of staff”. Now some companies will say “well this is far too expensive” but often a penny spent is a pound saved later on down the line.

Now I am not suggesting as part of the weekly team meeting you practice high intensity circular passing (although it might be fun) but at the same time why not just look at one unit of your team and:-

• Identify with them what they are good at and how they would like to be better in that particular skill area.
• Identify areas of weaknesses and see what training they would need to work on those weaknesses.
• Look at whether there could be some flexibility in roles and positions. The Spanish team were criticised in some quarters for adopting a strategy whereby they had no recognised centre forward. However, The Tipster and Junior Tipster jumped in delight to see an overlapping full back score a beautiful goal for Spain with the aplomb of a centre forward. Perhaps there is someone in your workforce who you have always had down as a central defender or goal keeper but actually lurking deep inside them is the occasional top rate striker.
• If there are ideas then they should be captured and reviewed at regular stages and individuals encouraged to reach the new goals.

It is not an ideal world out there but at the same time encouraging staff, re-skilling staff and motivating staff can be a key way to see through the economic crisis and perhaps you may surprise yourself with some very positive results coming through in the future.

In the words of the philosopher Heather Small (older readers may remember her wonderful tones) sometimes “you have got to search for the hero inside yourself” and by allowing staff to do that you may just be surprised at the result.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Gibson .