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29 Responses to What FIFA World Cup 2010 teaches us about Project Management?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Romin Irani. Romin Irani said: New Blog Post: What #FIFA #WorldCup 2010 teaches us about #ProjectManagement: http://wp.me/pqI4G-5E [...]
Very well written and good analogy between the two streams. Some of my suggestions:
1) There will be vuvuzela’s all around you, but you need to focus and concentrate on the task at hand (like Ghana and Germany did)
2) Luck does not knock twice. Ghana had the opportunity in the last minute of the game to advance but sadly they missed it. One needs to perform when it counts.
3) You need to prepare for the less used options/methods too. Many players missing penalty kicks or shootouts this time makes us believe that not enough effort was put in practicing that kick right.
Good Points made by you. I will add them to a list — once more contributions come in. And then maybe publish some more principles of Project Management
This is an excellent article and I would like to publish it on PM Hut. I (as well as PM Hut readers) love articles that relate Project Management to current events and draw some lessons learned. Please contact me either by email or through the “Contact Us” form on the PM Hut site in case you’re OK with the republishing.
Hey Romin,
This was a fantastic post – enjoyed reading it thoroughly. You draw some great parallels between the ongoing FIFA WC and Project Management. My personal favorite is the one that talks about the over-dependence on some key players… I call Rock Stars (http://www.activegarage.com/do-you-have-a-rock-star-culture-in-your-organization) & the one on planning – The Germany Vs. Argentina game (G – 4, A – 0) showed us the difference in planning on the two sides. There were no lack of skills on the Argentina side, but a total lack of planning – and as is usually the case, the consequences of lack of planning show up in the latter part of the projects (most of the goals against Argentina were scored in the 2nd half) with exponential and unrecoverable costs!
However, I don’t buy the (stretch) analogy on root cause. The quality of officiating has been THE major story of this FIFA World Cup for me. It’s really screwing up some games and results. While I won’t go into all the incidents (if you’ve been watching the games you can re-count them yourself!) I will say that I believe specific incidents (symptoms, as you say) DO affect the performance of the teams involved and therefore the outcome. Germany may well have ended up the better team in that game against England, but I would argue that the disallowed goal created additional momentum for Germany and the opposite for England. An important football game is played as much in the heads of the players as on the ground. How would the game have ended up if they’d went into half-time 2-2? I can just imagine the different team talks in each dressing room!
Having said all this – Germany is clearly a very good team, and I would have bet on them to go further in the competition than England would have. But once we get out of group play where every game is a cup-tie – psychology plays such an important role that you can’t just win games on skill and tactics (very important, but not the only critical success factors).
I believe it’s easy to sit back and say – “Look what happened – Germany were easily the better team …… England didn’t perform …” But we see this all too often at work when someone with all the right skills and knowledge to complete a project get’s side-swiped by a boss (referee) who starts changing the parameters mid-stream. Motivation goes and the project fails! And who gets the blame?! It would be argued that a good project leader should be able to handle that type of situation – but as long as you have an interfering and/or incompetent boss (referee) – at some point you have to think about whether it’s time to go play somewhere else!
Anyway, let’s not get too hung up on this. I guess I’m still venting – thanks for reading this far
Agree with you on the points that you have raised. The “Psychological” aspect is important and you couldn’t have put it better. Having said that, I can assure you that I have told everyone that I have met that if that second goal was allowed for England, that game might have turned on its head!
I like the point that you have raised about a Project Manager / Boss changing the parameters and how it could take a huge hit on the “motivation” aspect. Have experienced that one for sure.
Thanks for the additional points — I will use them for an update to this post, once more points come in.
David,
I totally agree with you in that circumstances within a game can and generally do change the tactics of the team. We’ve seen over and over how a defensively minded team holds strong for the majority of the game but once they go down one goal, their tactic changes and then all of a sudden they’re down 3 goals because they opened up the offensive to get back into it and get burned. See Portugal vs Korea. ( 1-0 at the half and 4-0 15min into the 2nd half)
Similar was the situation with the US, where they kept having to make up for the errors of the referees and eventually were just burned out from always coming back.
So, how does this translate to Project Management? Let’s think of those PMs that continually reward the arsonist for working all night and weekend to put out the fire. On the surface, it looks like a heroic effort however, the rest of the team knows that the “hero” being rewarding slacked off all week which is why he had to work all weekend but yet, the PM is rewarding the behavior. If this happens regularly, the remainder of the team will either change their tactic since their not being rewarded for getting things done on time OR leave the situation.
Although the individual is a ‘problem’ or maybe even a ‘known error’ he is being enabled by the PM. The blame lays on both but since their is a hierarchy of command, it must be addressed by the PM and can’t be just pushed to the individual. There are always more firefighting arsonists so we can’t count on it being addressed at that level.
Excellent!
great post!!!
Like you I’m not a football expert, but from all sports there is always something to learn.
I agree with all what you say and also with the reader’s comments, especially all related with “Psychological” and “motivational” aspects.
I am absolutely convinced that when you got two teams, where you can find most of the points you listed, what finally will make the difference between them is the motivational aspect, the human factor, as I like to say.
-Mind
-team work spirit
-heart
There we can find the key point to success.
Half of my hear is Argentinean, since I was born here, but half is Uruguayan, since my partner is from there. So this world cup was very special for me: I was very disappointed with the Argentinean team, because all what you said above, but I’m very happy and very proud with Uruguay, because nobody believe in them, but they believe in themselves, their mind, their spirit and their heart play and fight every second, they never give up.
And above all, are extremely humble!.
Yesterday they lost, but it was a wonderful match, and they fight till the end.
For all of this, there is an expression: “garra charrúa” (Charrúan claws) and is used to refer to victory in the face of certain defeat, in situations in which Uruguayans display bravery in the face of overwhelming odds.
I think…after we work in all of the points you listed so well, the key to success relies in something we can explain with words…we just have to feel it with our heart.
Thank you very much for this wonderful post, it’s the best analysis I read so far!
Veronica
Thanks for your encouraging comments. And for putting it such a long and thoughtful comment. I agree with you and like David and Carlos below, that the game (or project) is played in the mind. Especially when you are a goal down or when you are facing issues/deadlines in your project.
The Uruguay team have done themselves proud in the tournament and given everyone a belief that if you put your mind to it, the rest of the things will take care of themselves.
Though I agree on the project management part, sports depends a lot on other things as well…like psychology, mental strength and fitness (European teams are better here usually).
Planning is definitely important looking at the way Spain and Germany have played. Both the teams have their unique style. Spain relies on ball possession and short passes, and Germany on counter-attacking.
But in the case of Germany, credit goes to the fitness of their team…bcoz for their strategy to work, you need a bunch of guys who can continuously sprint up and down the field throughout the match. Not many teams can do that.
In sports, it is very usual for a team to have a bad day; else Germany should not have lost to Serbia. A Germany beating Argentina 4-0 may not have repeated that had they met again in the tournament.
And Germany England match really wasn’t one-sided as the score suggests. England were really playing well, and the referee’s decision did play a role here. This is pure psychology and patriotism at work…the same thing that goes in an India-Pakistan match. Irrespective of their forms before, on that particular day, their playing will reach a totally different level, and any bad decisions can easily demoralize either team.
Ronaldo, Messi are good but Rooney and Kaka are over-rated. But if you have somebody like a Diego Maradona, who did single handedly won the world cup in 1986, it is very natural for coaches to make their plan around such key players. Ghana came a long way just because of Gyan…
Be it soccer or cricket, most teams have their strategies around key players, 8 out of 10 times, it works. Most of them do have a plan B of course…but the problem in sports is that if your Plan A does not work, you have very little time to do anything successful with Plan B, and by that time the other team mentally reaches a state where they are ready to crush you…
I still agree with your observations…its just that I feel sports involves something more.
Thanks for the detailed comment. The points you raise are important. Many other readers too have pointed out the psychological aspect that could turn the game. I agree with that observation. It would be interesting to see how to apply psychology to how it could affect project teams. There are some comments on that over here but I would like to learn more about that from the readers.
One thing that i could think of is that of the internal politics that happen within the teams or sometimes from outside the team by someone having power. It could be a refree or umpire or a senior manager. These things never come out but are always present. Be it football, cricket, any other game or a project. The impact of such politics could be very high at times.
Thanks for the comment. I understand your point. It sort of relates to the point that Carlos & David have mentioned, where a PM/external entity could derail/demotivate the project.
Sir Alex Ferguson has recently stated that it is a terrible job In fact, I think it is a great job. The potential upside if you get positive results is huge.
If no prior experience managing a football team is fine ….. please let me know where I can send my resume ?
Romin, very nice post.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Romin Irani. Romin Irani said: New Blog Post: What #FIFA #WorldCup 2010 teaches us about #ProjectManagement: http://wp.me/pqI4G-5E [...]
As usual very well written…
Excellent!!!!! To bad there was no reference to Ghana, hehehe!
However, lessons learned and very nice post. I’m bound to share.
Very well written and good analogy between the two streams. Some of my suggestions:
1) There will be vuvuzela’s all around you, but you need to focus and concentrate on the task at hand (like Ghana and Germany did)
2) Luck does not knock twice. Ghana had the opportunity in the last minute of the game to advance but sadly they missed it. One needs to perform when it counts.
3) You need to prepare for the less used options/methods too. Many players missing penalty kicks or shootouts this time makes us believe that not enough effort was put in practicing that kick right.
Moiz,
Good Points made by you. I will add them to a list — once more contributions come in. And then maybe publish some more principles of Project Management
Cheers
Romin
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Great post…
Hi Romin,
This is an excellent article and I would like to publish it on PM Hut. I (as well as PM Hut readers) love articles that relate Project Management to current events and draw some lessons learned. Please contact me either by email or through the “Contact Us” form on the PM Hut site in case you’re OK with the republishing.
Dear Rominji
Great Post….
Your post reminded of my ‘Sholay’ ppt.
Best wishes.
Spandane
very good post Romin.
Great post and great observation…
[...] Original article can be found here. [...]
Hey Romin,
This was a fantastic post – enjoyed reading it thoroughly. You draw some great parallels between the ongoing FIFA WC and Project Management. My personal favorite is the one that talks about the over-dependence on some key players… I call Rock Stars (http://www.activegarage.com/do-you-have-a-rock-star-culture-in-your-organization) & the one on planning – The Germany Vs. Argentina game (G – 4, A – 0) showed us the difference in planning on the two sides. There were no lack of skills on the Argentina side, but a total lack of planning – and as is usually the case, the consequences of lack of planning show up in the latter part of the projects (most of the goals against Argentina were scored in the 2nd half) with exponential and unrecoverable costs!
Just my 2 cents…
Cheers.
Himanshu
Hi Himanshu,
Thanks for the encouraging comments. You make some good points.
Cheers
Romin
Great points and good linking
Well done – nice piece!
However, I don’t buy the (stretch) analogy on root cause. The quality of officiating has been THE major story of this FIFA World Cup for me. It’s really screwing up some games and results. While I won’t go into all the incidents (if you’ve been watching the games you can re-count them yourself!) I will say that I believe specific incidents (symptoms, as you say) DO affect the performance of the teams involved and therefore the outcome. Germany may well have ended up the better team in that game against England, but I would argue that the disallowed goal created additional momentum for Germany and the opposite for England. An important football game is played as much in the heads of the players as on the ground. How would the game have ended up if they’d went into half-time 2-2? I can just imagine the different team talks in each dressing room!
Having said all this – Germany is clearly a very good team, and I would have bet on them to go further in the competition than England would have. But once we get out of group play where every game is a cup-tie – psychology plays such an important role that you can’t just win games on skill and tactics (very important, but not the only critical success factors).
I believe it’s easy to sit back and say – “Look what happened – Germany were easily the better team …… England didn’t perform …” But we see this all too often at work when someone with all the right skills and knowledge to complete a project get’s side-swiped by a boss (referee) who starts changing the parameters mid-stream. Motivation goes and the project fails! And who gets the blame?! It would be argued that a good project leader should be able to handle that type of situation – but as long as you have an interfering and/or incompetent boss (referee) – at some point you have to think about whether it’s time to go play somewhere else!
Anyway, let’s not get too hung up on this. I guess I’m still venting – thanks for reading this far
Hi David,
Thanks for your detailed comment.
Agree with you on the points that you have raised. The “Psychological” aspect is important and you couldn’t have put it better. Having said that, I can assure you that I have told everyone that I have met that if that second goal was allowed for England, that game might have turned on its head!
I like the point that you have raised about a Project Manager / Boss changing the parameters and how it could take a huge hit on the “motivation” aspect. Have experienced that one for sure.
Thanks for the additional points — I will use them for an update to this post, once more points come in.
Cheers
Romin
David,
I totally agree with you in that circumstances within a game can and generally do change the tactics of the team. We’ve seen over and over how a defensively minded team holds strong for the majority of the game but once they go down one goal, their tactic changes and then all of a sudden they’re down 3 goals because they opened up the offensive to get back into it and get burned. See Portugal vs Korea. ( 1-0 at the half and 4-0 15min into the 2nd half)
Similar was the situation with the US, where they kept having to make up for the errors of the referees and eventually were just burned out from always coming back.
So, how does this translate to Project Management? Let’s think of those PMs that continually reward the arsonist for working all night and weekend to put out the fire. On the surface, it looks like a heroic effort however, the rest of the team knows that the “hero” being rewarding slacked off all week which is why he had to work all weekend but yet, the PM is rewarding the behavior. If this happens regularly, the remainder of the team will either change their tactic since their not being rewarded for getting things done on time OR leave the situation.
Although the individual is a ‘problem’ or maybe even a ‘known error’ he is being enabled by the PM. The blame lays on both but since their is a hierarchy of command, it must be addressed by the PM and can’t be just pushed to the individual. There are always more firefighting arsonists so we can’t count on it being addressed at that level.
Excellent!
great post!!!
Like you I’m not a football expert, but from all sports there is always something to learn.
I agree with all what you say and also with the reader’s comments, especially all related with “Psychological” and “motivational” aspects.
I am absolutely convinced that when you got two teams, where you can find most of the points you listed, what finally will make the difference between them is the motivational aspect, the human factor, as I like to say.
-Mind
-team work spirit
-heart
There we can find the key point to success.
Half of my hear is Argentinean, since I was born here, but half is Uruguayan, since my partner is from there. So this world cup was very special for me: I was very disappointed with the Argentinean team, because all what you said above, but I’m very happy and very proud with Uruguay, because nobody believe in them, but they believe in themselves, their mind, their spirit and their heart play and fight every second, they never give up.
And above all, are extremely humble!.
Yesterday they lost, but it was a wonderful match, and they fight till the end.
For all of this, there is an expression: “garra charrúa” (Charrúan claws) and is used to refer to victory in the face of certain defeat, in situations in which Uruguayans display bravery in the face of overwhelming odds.
I think…after we work in all of the points you listed so well, the key to success relies in something we can explain with words…we just have to feel it with our heart.
Thank you very much for this wonderful post, it’s the best analysis I read so far!
Veronica
Hi Veronica,
Thanks for your encouraging comments. And for putting it such a long and thoughtful comment. I agree with you and like David and Carlos below, that the game (or project) is played in the mind. Especially when you are a goal down or when you are facing issues/deadlines in your project.
The Uruguay team have done themselves proud in the tournament and given everyone a belief that if you put your mind to it, the rest of the things will take care of themselves.
Cheers
Romin
Excellent post!!! Will inspire for a good project management
Mr Romin Irani…our catch-up is pending
Interesting post here…
Though I agree on the project management part, sports depends a lot on other things as well…like psychology, mental strength and fitness (European teams are better here usually).
Planning is definitely important looking at the way Spain and Germany have played. Both the teams have their unique style. Spain relies on ball possession and short passes, and Germany on counter-attacking.
But in the case of Germany, credit goes to the fitness of their team…bcoz for their strategy to work, you need a bunch of guys who can continuously sprint up and down the field throughout the match. Not many teams can do that.
In sports, it is very usual for a team to have a bad day; else Germany should not have lost to Serbia. A Germany beating Argentina 4-0 may not have repeated that had they met again in the tournament.
And Germany England match really wasn’t one-sided as the score suggests. England were really playing well, and the referee’s decision did play a role here. This is pure psychology and patriotism at work…the same thing that goes in an India-Pakistan match. Irrespective of their forms before, on that particular day, their playing will reach a totally different level, and any bad decisions can easily demoralize either team.
Ronaldo, Messi are good but Rooney and Kaka are over-rated. But if you have somebody like a Diego Maradona, who did single handedly won the world cup in 1986, it is very natural for coaches to make their plan around such key players. Ghana came a long way just because of Gyan…
Be it soccer or cricket, most teams have their strategies around key players, 8 out of 10 times, it works. Most of them do have a plan B of course…but the problem in sports is that if your Plan A does not work, you have very little time to do anything successful with Plan B, and by that time the other team mentally reaches a state where they are ready to crush you…
I still agree with your observations…its just that I feel sports involves something more.
Long post…but I love sports man
Suresh,
Thanks for the detailed comment. The points you raise are important. Many other readers too have pointed out the psychological aspect that could turn the game. I agree with that observation. It would be interesting to see how to apply psychology to how it could affect project teams. There are some comments on that over here but I would like to learn more about that from the readers.
Cheers
Romin
As always a great post Romin.
One thing that i could think of is that of the internal politics that happen within the teams or sometimes from outside the team by someone having power. It could be a refree or umpire or a senior manager. These things never come out but are always present. Be it football, cricket, any other game or a project. The impact of such politics could be very high at times.
Saagar,
Thanks for the comment. I understand your point. It sort of relates to the point that Carlos & David have mentioned, where a PM/external entity could derail/demotivate the project.
Cheers
Romin
Good one Romin. Happy to read something from you after a long time. Star players are out, Iniesta is in!!!
Great Blog. Would you mind coming over to London and managing the England side for us? It seems we need someone with this kind of objectivity!
Hello Sophie,
Thanks for your comments.
Sir Alex Ferguson has recently stated that it is a terrible job
In fact, I think it is a great job. The potential upside if you get positive results is huge.
If no prior experience managing a football team is fine ….. please let me know where I can send my resume ?
Cheers
Romin