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Posted by Sarah Brown on 19 Jun '12

Scary facts about teams - think football

The results of a poll of employees show that very few are clear about the vision and objectives of their organisation and their role - like only 2 football players in a team knowing which is their goal

As the Euro gets to the key stages and the TV is full of yet more shots of football and pundits discuss the England team’s chances, it makes me think their success will depend on them really knowing that they’re doing and working as a team.

Stephen Covey in his book The 8th Habit has results from a poll of 23,000 employees across lots of companies and sectors which show that very few understood the organisation’s goals or how they should be involved. There are lots of stats but he uses the following powerful analogy “if say a football team had the same scores only 4 of the 11 players on the field would know which goal is theirs, only 2 of the 11 would care. Only 2 of the 11 would know what position they play and know exactly what they are supposed to do. And all but 2 players would, in some way, be competing against their own team members rather than the opponents.”

Let’s hope the England football team isn’t like most people in most organisations – what’s the stats for your team, I hope they know which goal they should be attacking and which defending and that they care?

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