Now, most of you readers know that I am a enthusiastic rower and sculler. And here’s a great cross-over article about management theory and team building that is being used by one of the top rowing teams in teh world, Cambridge University, to try and aide its efforts to win the Boat Race.
Mark de Rond, has been following the crew and its professional coaching team for a year for his researches. He is a Management Theorist at the Judge Business School. It was Mark who set up the collaboration for his researches. I expect the book that comes out of it will be very insightful.
Anyway, here’s the Economist article.
Rhythm and blues
Mar 29th 2007 | CAMBRIDGE
From The Economist print edition
Can voguish management theory help to win a venerable race?
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY’S “blue boat”, which faces its Oxford rival in the 153rd
boat race on April 7th, glides past the browns and greys of the East
Anglian fenland. The oars cup and spill the water, leaving eight evenly
spaced dimples in the river behind them. Two catamarans track the
boat’s progress. In the first, Duncan Holland, the coach, looks for
flaws in the rowers’ technique. In the second sits a less congruous
figure: Mark de Rond, a management theorist from Cambridge’s Judge
Business School. He thinks this time-honoured contest holds lessons for
business today.
As in any
company, the members of the boat club are torn between competition and
co-operation. Colleagues vie with each other for preferment, yet must
collaborate closely to fend off competition from without. To win a seat
in the blue boat a rower must outshine his clubmates; but to go fast,
rowers must synchronise their efforts with the same people they are
trying to outdo.
On one recent
outing Mr Holland noticed the tell-tale signs of a “rhythm fight”
between two decorated rowers: each was trying, perhaps unwittingly, to
impose his natural tempo on the other. Some coaches might just tell one
to speed up and the other to slow down. But Mr Holland is willing to
try some b-school thinking. So, like the problem-solving circles
pioneered by Japanese steel plants, his rowers are encouraged to spot
and solve such glitches for themselves. “I lead from the side,” he says.
Picking the
best eight from more than 30 hopefuls proved tricky: not all of the
possible permutations added up to the sum of their parts. Jake
Cornelius, for example, arrived from Stanford University as one of the
strongest rowers, but he seemed to upset the rhythm of the boat. So he
was advised to row “anonymously”. As another rower put it: you stand
out by not sticking out.
Dan
O’Shaughnessy, by contrast, may not have the smoothest technique, but
he still belongs in the swiftest boat. A flamboyant character, he gets
the best out of his crewmates, who like to have him around, Mr de Rond
says. Their views were backed by an article in the Harvard Business Review,
which found that workmates prize amiability over ability, preferring
the “loveable fool” to the “competent jerk”. Employees may be reluctant
to admit this, but managers should take heed: teams that like each
other also seem to work better together.
So both
rowers will take their seats in the blue boat next week. The race is
always a test of strength, stamina and technique. But this year’s event
may also show whether some innovative management thinking holds water.
