I don’t play soccer haven’t since I was a teenager, I grew up in Pittsburgh a diehard Steelers fan and played hockey in college. Growing up in Pittsburgh you don’t have game day clothes you have non black & gold clothes for church or special occasions. No matter your race, religion or background growing up in Pittsburgh your mood, your week, your year often was good or bad depending on how well the 3 major sports teams did. This culture, the people and the passion are the reason I’m proud to tell everyone and anyone I was born and raised in Pittsburgh.
So when it comes to the World Cup or the World Series of Poker or the Olympics it’s more than a game it’s a sporting event. This event unites us as a country, as a culture and as One Nation. One Team.
So although the media, competition and even the USA coach didn’t believe USA has much of a chance in the World Cup, I a forever optimist always believe that anything can happen and love the quote “That’s why they play the game!”
I’ve deployed social business software and collaboration tools for the department of defense, the army, defense information systems agency and technology startups. The architecting, implementation, community management and growth elements required for these solutions to be successful are very much aligned to what took place in USA soccer’s opening game!
What can Social Businesses learn from the 2 -1 USA victory over Ghana?
- Quick Wins & Early Adopters are Game Changers!
- My beer was barely poured and I had just sat down from the national anthem & 29 seconds into the game Clint Dempsey shocks the world and changes the entire flow and structure of the next 90mins.
- Social Business is the combination of people, culture, communication and technology. Any of which require many moving parts, leadership buy-in, social employee advocates and strong project management. There is no easy or quick fix to implement social business change but quick wins and social employee advocates are vital for long term success!
- Leadership & Coaches are only as good as the followers who believe in them
- I coach high school hockey and never miss a Steelers football game but unlike hockey and football the coaches in soccer have limited engagement and direct interaction with their teams except at halftime. After team USA goes up 1-0 there is still 44+mins till halftime yet the game plan and strategy must be adjusted on the fly by the players on the field.
- Social Business change to be successful requires leadership buy-in, a strong game-plan and a culture of employees dedicated to increasing collaboration, productivity and focus on what’s best for the team!
- Change happens and you must embrace it and find a solution
- Thanks to hamstring injuries, USA had used two of their substitutes by halftime drastically changing how USA was going to play the remainder of the game.
- Social Business is still maturing as a solution and the one thing consistent is change. Employees come and go, technology and software solutions available are constantly improving and evolving but the key is to have an agile strategy that allows for change while focusing improving and driving social business change.
- Winning the early battles is only great if you win the war in the end.
- USA went up 1-0 30 seconds in the game and for the next 81 minutes the USA played not to lose and to hold on. But when Ghana scored in the 82nd all that hard work during those 81 minutes was for nothing. That all changed when USA scored in the 86th minute to make all the hard work worth it in the end.
- Too many social business solutions are invested in and supported at the beginning of the implementation yet as small wins and communication increases, leadership often changes strategy and invests less time and money yet expecting the same growth and goals to be achieved. It’s important to promote and celebrate the wins along the way while also keeping focus on the social business goals and playing the long game!
- Culture, People, Communication and Passion are powerful.
- Team USA could have easily shutdown and been happy with the tie after Ghana scored and as the announcers stated the 1 point win would still be a good outcome. But the people and culture of the USA soccer team was to not give up but punch back. If you watched goalie Tim Howard after Ghana scored the tying goal he wasn’t panicked he was communicating with the team telling them to calm down and come together. Then when the substitute, a young up and coming soccer player John Brooks scored the game winner the passion the team had could be seen on the face of every player and the coach!
- Social Business solutions often fail not because the software purchased didn’t do what it was supposed but because the culture, the people, the communication was broken to begin with and no software or technology can fix this people problem. It is essential that training, people and culture are structured and focused on teaching change and embracing a new way of communicating and collaborating to be successful so that the leaders and decision makers can rejoice like coach Jurgen Klinsmann.
- Celebrate your wins, be proud of your accomplishments but know nothing is perfect!
- No, the victory for USA over Ghana doesn’t guarantee USA anything. They still have a long uphill road to just get out of their group but it was a big victory for the USA and for the sports following here in the United States and that should be celebrated. There is also a lot that can be learned from that victory and team USA’s success in the rest of the World Cup has more to do with what they learn from what they did wrong in the win than it does in the win itself.
- Social Business solutions are completed and unique to each company and culture but the key is to understand the goals. Yes, celebrate the wins but even in my experience with a 72% adoption rate company wide, no solution is perfect and you can’t make everyone happy but it’s important to learn from the 28% who aren’t adopting as well as the 72% who do believe.
