Why change a winning formula – what can we learn from sport during the festive period?
The Christmas and New Year period is a time when a little bit of sport gives us the opportunity to work off the festive excesses or simply to get a bit of much needed fresh air! But with a packed holiday fixture list for many sports teams, it is also a time that can make or break a title challenge or trigger a relegation battle.
As such, it’s not surprising that the focus of many teams during the festive period is on getting results and keeping a close eye on the competition. But what risks does that bring and what can we learn from that in our own approach to work and studying?
The risk of making unnecessary changes
Many football games played over the festive period provide an abundance of goals for both sides. But that can often be as a result of one team changing its winning formula mid-game.
Take a team that leads 3-0 at half time (Team A), but goes on to lose a match 4-3 to the other side (Team B). The temptation for Team A with a big half-time lead is to focus on preserving its advantage so that it can go on to win the game, rather than sticking to the formula that brought first half success. As such, the manager of Team A might be tempted to substitute attacking players for more defensive players or make the team formation more defensive.
However, as is often seen in football, Team B then takes advantage of that strategy in the second half, because Team A has changed its winning formula for a different formula that has no track record of success in that match. That leads to uncertainty, nervousness and fear amongst Team A players who can’t work out quickly enough why their new formula isn’t getting the same results. Team B immediately senses that fear and take full advantage of it!
The risk of focussing on the other team
Take the same two teams and the same scenario. Team A has the same half time lead (3-0), but in the half-time talk, the manager of Team A says that in order to preserve its lead, Team A needs to focus more on what Team B are doing. No changes are made to Team A in the second half and the team formation stays the same.
Again Team B go on to win the game 4-3. However, this time by focussing more on what Team B is doing, the Team A players lose focus of their first half winning formula and start to become more jittery and careless on the ball. Team B hasn’t done anything different to cause that. It is purely Team A’s thinking that has provided Team B with more opportunities to push forward and score goals, which it takes full advantage of.
What can we learn from this?
How football teams perform over the festive period provides some useful lessons, which are relevant to both business and study:
1. Don’t change a winning formula out of unnecessary fear
If things are working well and smoothly your way, why change that? We all have methods and systems of working and study that deliver proven results time and time again, so, if you are tempted to change them, ask yourself ‘why am I really doing that’? If you are adapting or changing out of unnecessary fear of what someone else might do, say, or think, you may find that your successful ways of working or studying are jeopardised and that you end up with a formula that becomes useless or unprofitable.
2. Focus on what you are doing first
It’s part of human nature to compare ourselves to others, but the age of social media has brought this trait into sharp focus. However, by focussing more on what others are doing than on what you are doing, you actually start to lose focus of how you function best and it can cloud your own thought processes and ability to be more creative. By focussing on what you are doing first, it will help foster the self-awareness that is necessary to perform well.
Isn’t it all just down to luck?
It’s true that many great sporting moments turn on a little bit of luck and the same is sometimes the case in life more generally. But sports teams who achieve consistent success, usually have a recognised style or system of playing and they stick to that formula over time.
As society changes, sometimes you need to adapt to change, but if you focus too much on what others might do at the expense of what you are actually doing, it may hamper your ability to achieve the success that you’re looking for.
Ultimately, the best results come out of your own creativity, thoughts and actions, rather than focusing on trying to neutralise the efforts of others.
