Congratulations Canterbury Rugby.
Winning a 5th consecutive NPC rugby championship title is a phenomenal accomplishment!!!
No other team has achieved this since the NPC competition began more than 100 years ago. A truly significant highlight from last weekend’s ITM Cup premiership final - domestic rugby's top title.
A triumph without precedent in the history of New Zealand Provincial Rugby.
For the fifth year in a row, Canterbury Rugby have won the title, beating Auckland 31-18 in the Christchurch final last Saturday night.
What is the X FACTOR ingredient that consistently enables these high performance results?
As an organisation Canterbury Rugby embrace Mental Toughness amongst other systems essential to the delivery of truly outstanding performance.
In 2008 - 2009 Canterbury Rugby engaged with us here at Foresight in order to implement our science-based Mental Toughness and Resilience system with the intention of embedding the key principles throughout their organisation.
This system has now become part of their DNA, leading to 5 consecutive wins in a row. Whereas previously they had never won the title in consecutive years.
Canterbury Rugby’s success is no accident.
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Tabai Mattson has been the Canterbury assistant coach since 2009. Now, as head coach with the team he commented as follows:
"It is difficult when you have one training a week but then your off-field innovations become the key," he said. "There are different ways for players to absorb information besides just running around, so you must be solution-focused. "We have more mini conversations, so you are still coaching but just in a different format.” "There are lots of little conversations with players, with units and with each other." |
Tabai Mattson has been the Canterbury assistant coach since 2009. Now, as head coach with the team he commented as follows:
"It is difficult when you have one training a week but then your off-field innovations become the key," he said.
"There are different ways for players to absorb information besides just running around, so you must be solution-focused.
"We have more mini conversations, so you are still coaching but just in a different format.”
"There are lots of little conversations with players, with units and with each other."
Rob Penney, Tabai Mattson’s predecessor before taking up the head coach role at Munster in Ireland, made exceptionally good use of our Mental Toughness System. Penney's four consecutive NPC titles equalled the records set by Auckland in 1987-1990 and 1993-1996, and he says,
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“What I liked most about the ‘Learned Optimism and Resilience’ programme was the attitudinal shift from a pessimistic outlook to optimistic with tools that are practical, relevant and most importantly usable. I highly recommend this programme because the ideas and strategies can be easily used by any person and the material is based on proven scientific research.’
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George Whitelock, the current Canterbury Captain vowed he would be back to help Canterbury secure a sixth consecutive national provincial rugby title next year.
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No team has ever managed five titles in a row.
“Just reflecting now it’s pretty amazing, 5 years in a row being number 1. The lineout was outstanding.
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“We knew they were going to bring something,” coach Tabai Mattson said.
“We really had belief in what we were doing. We had faith that if we hung in there that we had more resolve to clamber over the top at the end. There were nerves but there was a destiny too.”
He has brought his own flair to the table along with assistants Scott Robertson and Aaron Mauger but the Penney mentality has been maintained.”
“We will be known as dominant team that’s won five in a row”
“For me it’s an absolute highlight. No-one can take this away from this group of players. They are part of history.
Incorporating The System
A 1985/86 Study by Dr Martin Seligman about NBA Basketball teams demonstrated the following:
- Optimistic i.e. Mentally Tough teams show better pressure in their batting statistics the following season
- Optimistic teams win more games the following season than their previous Win-Lose record would predict
- Optimistic basketball teams did better than predicted, pessimistic teams did worse.
- Conclusions on team sports “the impact of explanatory style (mental toughness) has a profound impact on performance”
The same results have now been seen on the New Zealand Rugby field.
Does this performance translate across other spectrums?
From more than 1000 studies at more than 100 universities over a 40 year the evidence is conclusive.
People with this “attitude” experience the following:
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Improved health
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Decreased rates of disease
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Increased individual and team sporting accomplishments
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Higher incomes
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Increased engagement in study and as a consequence better academic achievement
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Decreased depression, to the point of no depression
How can you use this to improve the outcomes in your organisation?
Organisations that recognise the value of improving the mindset of their people and commit strategically over a period of time; for example they understand the value of embedding mental toughness and resilience in the DNA of their organisation, outperform their competitors. Canterbury Rugby being one prime example.
APPLICATION
How well do your employees respond to change initiatives?
You’ve probably read plenty of articles discussing this vital matter of “change”.
In our surveys we have found that:
a) no-one believes the volume of “change” is going to decrease in the future
b) no-one believes that the pace of “change” will decrease in the future
Those beliefs being the mindset of employees, organisations that accept this perspective and work with this new reality will be better equipped to deal with the consequences of change.
It would be a rare thing for an article to draw the link between your team’s response to change and EBIT, or increased bottom Line. Those enterprises that do comprehend this connection (and we’re working with a few), are the kinds of organisations that understand that growth limitations boil down to their people’s ability to respond in a positive manner to naturally occurring shifts in the marketplace and react accordingly.
Leaders and managers often plan changes to the course ahead. Those changes are frequently perceived as pressure by employees leading to an in-house reaction of stress, which in turn throws up resistance.
Lack of engagement is the silent killer of the successful implementation of any business strategy with any kind of “change” as a core strategy. Leaders who grasp the importance of implementing initiatives focused on preparing their people for the emotional impact of changes are putting the planks in place that will reduce the risk of disengagement in a major way.
The first thing your employees do when they become disengaged from your values and vision is go to ground and protect their position (a survival instinct). A consequence of a disengaged workforce can be frustration and despondency from managers and leaders, in response to this entirely understandable self protection behaviour by employees.
Leaders and managers begin to express their feelings; employees switch to below the line behaviour in an attempt to counter the discontent expressed by their leaders - only worsening the problem.
Now the problem of implementing the “change programme” escalates, showing up in lateness, absenteeism, sick days, arguments, insincere behaviour, excuses for poor performance. All being symptoms of the lack of commitment that is present and undermining management’s ability to progress the intended purpose of the “changes”.
Tom Peters, a thought leader from the U.S, renowned for his ground-breaking work in the 70’s points out the pathway to a high performing organisation is based on investing in the people that make the enterprise function. He also points out that it is so important you simply cannot implement anything successfully without the full support of your people. Part of the framework required is a clear direction, core values, vision, and strong identification with your brand. However none of this matters unless there is a strong level of commitment from all of the key players across the enterprise.
Preparing your people emotionally by developing their resilience and mental toughness is a distinct way to build an organisation that embraces change (a culture where employees respond in a positive manner to the change initiatives and welcome changes to their own thinking). Across all spectrums for implementing change management initiatives, we have not come across another method more effective at enabling change management where improved EBIT and bottom-line increases are intended.
One thing we know is that the rate of change is not slowing down anytime soon.
Foresight specialises in preparing employees for change, and our science-based expertise produces long-lasting outcomes for employees and their employing enterprise.
Please contact us for a conversation about the next steps to increase your organisations mental toughness.
enquiries@foresight.co.nz
Kind regards
Jamie Ford
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