From now on, every other edition of The Long Game will be devoted to discussing an idea from a book, along with giving a CHP rating of the book out of 10.
This week, the short and very readable book, was ‘Legacy’ by James Kerr. An exploration of the New Zealand national rugby union team, one of the most successful sporting teams in history - with an all time win rate of 76% in test matches.
For all teams, there are periods of difficulty, and in the case of the All Blacks, between 2004 and 2011, the team underwent a period of significant renewal, akin to a cultural revolution - to address standards they believed to have started slipping.
At the heart of this revolution was a surprisingly simple exercise: asking fundamental questions.
What does it mean to be a New Zealander?
What does it mean to be an All Black?
What do we stand for?
What do we need to change?
The idea was that culture was something that needed to be continually examined, challenged and reinforced.
This is closely related to something called ‘the Socratic method’: using questions, rather than simply providing answers, to help someone examine their assumptions and arrive at their own understanding.
A method also at the heart of quality coaching.
One Māori proverb cited in the book captures the idea beautifully:
“ Let the questioning continue…the ability of the person is in asking questions.”
There is something powerful about this approach.
We spend a lot of our lives operating on autopilot. We develop our own ‘culture’ - routines, habits and assumptions about what we should be doing, often without stopping to ask why.
Why am I doing this?
What am I actually trying to achieve?
Is this still important to me?
In my own life, alcohol was something which had become an ‘autopilot habit’ - something I did (a lot!) without ever examining very closely. When I did finally pause and ask ‘why am I drinking?’ I found i didn‘t have a very good answer.
That led me to making what was a huge change for me - and tomorrow I celebrate 2 years alcohol free. Without doubt two of the best and most productive years of my life.
Now this is clearly a hugely reductionist take on what made the All Blacks so formidable. There is an enormous amount more to their culture, leadership and success than just asking questions, but I found it comforting that the Socratic method featured so prominently in the opening chapters of the book.
Because whether it is in the building of a great team or the changing of ingrained habits - there is clearly huge value in occasionally stepping off autopilot to ask yourself a better question.
Let the questioning continue!
CHP Rating 8/10 - there was a huge amount of insightful material about personal development, culture and leadership in this book - some of which will make it into future editions!
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