A camel is a horse........

A camel is a horse designed by a committee” Committee decision-making has been criticized for producing ugly, generic results.

Never the less, I love committees where constructive conflict exists and there is a vigorous exchange of ideas and thoughts. In the least it precludes 'group think' and one person hijacking a committee.

As the Common Wealth Games, of Delhi sinks further and the city adds a new chapter to its history, one wonders what the CWG committee was up to? Why and how did the committee, headed by a career politician, allow the situation to come to such a pass.

If the camel is really a horse designed by a committee, then, this was a committee which was full of ideas and probably acted after getting everybody on board. The CWG is the antithesis.

People who dissent in group gatherings can be a pain in the backside, but they serve a vital role.An acrimonious pair were the former British Prime Ministers Blair and his successor Brown. At the height of their conflict, Blair, received advise that he should boot Brown out of his cabinet. Better sense prevailed and he did not.

Lyndon Johnson, the American president, put it more aptly, when he is said to have said:

It's better to have a person inside the tent and pissing out rather than, having him outside pissing in!!!!!!


Well said indeed.........a view I endorse........................

Its all about team dynamics!

Overall, team cohesion is developed through coaches and athletes working to achieve common goals and living up to the team philosophy both on and off the field. Building a unified team environment requires constant feedback, direct communication, identifiable leaders and developing a team culture within the parameters of the organizational mission.

This was probably not very evident with the 'Les Bleus' or so as the French National Football Team is called. The French saw an early disgraceful exit from the FIFA World Cup and have been blasted by all and sundry, so much so that, the captain Thierry Henry, has requested a meeting with the French President, Sarkozy.

That the team, played poor football, is evident and that team cohesion was poor is pretty clear.In the run up to the world cup, three of their stars were caught sleeping with an under aged prostitute and were severely castigated. This was followed by an unseemly spat, over the team staying in very expensive hotels in what is a recession hit France and to cap it all, the team saw a mutiny over one of the members being sent home by the coach for indiscipline.

On being beaten by rookies South Africa, the coach of the Bleus stormed off the pitch with out shaking hands with the SA coach. Peevish & poor behavior.Would you expect a team with this ethic, to win anything? I would be surprised if they did!

I wonder what Henry is going to say, to the President? Probably he is going to tell him, how he scored a crucial, goal against Ireland, with his hand, which an unsighted referee, did not penalize.

Its all about team dynamics!

A story of Schnapps!

A few days ago, I noticed a bottle of Schnapps, in a liquor store. For the uninitiated Schnapps, is a fruit brandy and one that requires an acquired taste. As a liquor it is popular in Germany & the immediate vicinity. While I did not buy the bottle, this story centres around the spirit!

While many of us waffle about great teams & team dynamics, it is rarely that we come across great teams, particularly great teams that remain great under intense pressure. More often than not we see teams that fracture and crack under strain.

The army of the Austrian empire in the 18th century had seen, days of of glory and was a lumbering, sizable force of soldiers who had a deep mistrust for each other and their abilities. The situation came to a comic pass at the battle of Karansebes in present day Romania.

The Austrian Emperor, Joseph II,( Holy Roman Emperor ) decided that his mission in life was to rid the world of barbarians ( Read Muslim Ottoman Turks ). He started by attacking the Turks in Transylvania. After camping in some marshland, 172,000 of his troops caught malaria, of which 33,000 died. When he heard that the Turkish Grand Vizier was on his way, Joseph took half his army to meet him near the town of Karansebes, in the September of 1788.

Of the many mercenaries, that populated the Austrian army, the flamboyant Hussars were a few. The Hussars, out on a scouting patrol, restless and bored, in waiting for battle, bought what is thought to be Schnapps from local folk & were in little time tipsy and raucous. Their behaviour drew sharp censure from Austrian Officers.
The men took offence, and, in order to frighten the officers away, started shouting out that the Turks were upon them. The officers fell for it, and raised the false alarm too. In the confusion, some body heard the word 'Allah', panic spread throughout the army and a stampede ensued. In the dark, Austrians started fighting Austrians and many men were also drowned in the river or crushed. By daybreak, it became apparent that the Austrians had killed 10,000 of their own number. The Turks had still not even arrived. The battle was over before it had begun & the Austrians limped back home with their tail between their legs. Joseph II suffered the ignominy of being pushed into a stream in the melee! Two days later the Turk army did arrive only to find ten thousand dead Austrian soldiers!

Great teams are built on implicit trust, great communication and sound leadership, not on numbers or grand plans. I'm also sure that the Austrians would have steered clear of Schnapps for quite a while...................

A spirit that never dies!

Only babes in the woods would suggest that politics and sport are not mixed. ‘Invictus’ is one flick of the genre which reinforces that they are. South African sport, went through a roller coaster ride, from 1970, when they refused to play an English cricket team, which had a former South African, who was not white, to winning the Rugby World Cup in 1995. Refusal to play the English team resulted in South Africa being shunned by all sporting nations and they were the skunks of sport.
In 1995 South Africa hosted the Rugby World Cup. Their team known as the Springboks (“Antelopes”) was made up of white players and one colored. Many black South Africans saw the team as a product of the apartheid era and wanted it dismantled and replaced, possibly with black players. Mandela disagreed and saw the situation as a means of bringing about greater unity among his people. He called for the captain of the team, Francois Pienaar, encouraging him to reach out to the community in a bid to gain support for the coming competitions. The team responded by going to the slums and teaching black boys how to play the game.
As South Africa prepared for the World Cup, the Minister of Sports told Mandela: “According to the experts, we will reach the quarterfinals, and no further.” Mandela replied: “According to the experts, you and I should still be in jail.” Just before the start of the games, he gave to team captain Pienaar a copy of the poem “Invictus.”

The last stanza reads:

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul………………………

In the finals, South Africa went on to defeat the heavily favored and marauding New Zealand All-Blacks in overtime, with their captain Francois Pienaar, leading from the front, cheered on by their president Nelson Mandela & a frenzied but united black & white crowd. The one event helped unite a nation, divided by suspicion, fear and acrimony!

“Invictus” was written in 1875 by English poet William Ernest Henley from a hospital bed after undergoing amputation of a leg due to tuberculosis of the bone. It originally bore no title, being part of a series of poems, but a few years later Arthur Quiller-Couch added the title “Invictus” (Latin for “unconquered”). Apparently it was Nelson Mandela’s favorite poem and helped him through the twenty seven years that he was imprisoned on ‘Robin Island’. The win by a South Africa reeling under a divided population, where hate was the predominant emotion must go down as the triumph of spirit over all odds!
Two disparate people inspired a nation, one an aging legend, Mandela and the other a determined sportsman Pienaar.Both men lead from the front. For me the book and movie are classics and show how the spirit of the soul can get you across all odds……………and it once gain underlines the importance of sport in our lives and campuses. Sport exposes one to diverse management concepts from leadership, to team work & teaches one to accept both defeat and victory with grace, including an ability to stand up and be counted when the chips are down! Even if it a game like rugby, which is said to be a hooligan's game played by gentleman.

It is sad to see sport disappearing from campuses........................

Did I play Rugby? It is one sport that I hated, but after Invictus, have developed a modicum of respect, for the rough & tumble!