At the 2019 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in Atlanta, Brad Sheehan, Managing Director of Flight Safety at Delta Airlines, spoke about fostering a learning culture where everyone accepts mistakes are going to happen, and pilots are encouraged to talk through and learn from their experiences. He said: “When a pilot reports, as long as they don’t lie and they didn’t make the mistake on purpose, their report will always be accepted and they will never be disciplined for an inadvertent act, no matter how significant.” The most important thing is to have a conversation and pilots are afforded the psychological safety to be vulnerable and to be open to talking about their mistakes, which are the basis for learning.
2. Reporting is voluntary, but expected
A crucial part of success, and maintaining success, is debriefing and evaluating. Delta have created a culture where everyone is open to talking about their performance, the good and the bad, so that everyone can learn from the experience. Safety reports are shared between Delta’s 1400 pilots so that everyone can benefit from the learnings that come with each experience.
3. Delta affords pilots the space to grow and develop
Experiential learning is something that more and more high performing teams are prioritising, and Sheehan explained that Delta have shifted away from memorising to scenario-based training. He said: “What we lack in a pilot having not experienced all those bad things, we can make up for in sharing like we’ve never done before.” It is through the evaluating and learning from all of their flights and performances, that Delta are able to prepare pilots for a broad and diverse range of scenarios they might face under real pressure. Delta prioritises safety over compliance, which allows pilots to interpret each situation as it comes. They want pilots who are mission-focused, but risk averse.
4. Understand your biases with human focused debriefs
We can accept that mistakes will happen, but of course within high performance environments the more you can reduce mistakes the more consistent performance and prolonged success you will enjoy. “We now spend a lot of time discussing human performance,” said Sheehan. “When can I predict that I’m more likely to make errors? How can I combat these things? Checklists, automation, pushing the other pilot to be an advocate”. Understanding yourself is the first step in effective peer to peer feedback and learning which he stressed as a key component to their success.
At Delta, they create a “shared mental model” so the pilots can understand each other and measure each other’s performance in the moment. “How do we work together, and how do we communicate our plans?” It is quintessential to think ahead and have plans for different scenarios you might face under pressure. Within this, they also created a ‘Threat and Error Management Model’ which is about being vulnerable and understanding how to get the best out of the team under real stress.
5. Beware of groupthink
Sheehan also highlighted how “groupthink can be a threat”. He argued that we need “healthy sceptics” and “trust that is verified”, so that co-pilots can be assertive and stand up for themselves. If one gets too comfortable with their co-worker or teammate, one may let them get away with something as we trust that they will perform, but sometimes that’s when an intervention is needed to help them prevent a mistake occurring.
Whilst many young players harbour dreams of playing Premier League football, the well-publicised reality is reserved for a minority. Enhancing the existing transition rate remains a priority for most academies and requires a collaborative approach engaging key internal and external stakeholders.
Before exploring existing and future interventions, an awareness of the current landscape is important. According to the Football Observatory, during the first half of the current season (2021-22) the average age of a Premier League player has been 27.16 years old with only 4.2 per cent of these players younger than 21 years old. Significantly, 59.5 per cent of players currently plying their trade in the Premier League would be considered expatriates (i.e., their origin exists outside of England) who have been secured on lucrative and often long-term contracts (the average stay in a Premier League club is 37 months).
A gross transfer spend of £1.4 billion by Premier League clubs during the two available transfer windows this season, significantly eclipses the €380 million combined outlay by clubs in La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), Bundesliga (Germany) and Ligue 1 (France), and reflects a generally positive trend in expenditure since 2003. These insights arguably highlight a league that present limited opportunities and favour more experienced players. Young players are competing for game time with the finest players in the world. This clearly represents a challenging landscape for young players with Premier League aspirations, and clubs with a desire to facilitate the transition of academy graduates.
The challenges evident on the pitch are often further exacerbated by an incentivised short-term focus and instability that can characterise off-pitch activity. Indeed, in 2021, Statista reviewed the average tenure of Premier League managers in the past ten seasons. According to the report, the average tenure at Southampton Football Club (accurate as of 08.11.21) during this period was 513 days. Our current Manager, Ralph Hasenhüttl, has surpassed more than 1000 days in post and offered a stability that encourages a more future-oriented outlook. Coupled with the financial incentives available when winning games, managers might understandably prioritise short-term results. Arguably, young players may require time before delivering game impactful performances at a Premier League level. Clubs must negotiate this tension, and there is evidence of positive progress in the past decade.
Despite the challenging context, since the inception of the Premier League-led Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) in 2012 a positive increase in home grown talent is evident. Notably, last season young English players were securing significant game time domestically and in European competition relative to their homegrown counterparts in the big five leagues (i.e., Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, and Ligue 1). Specifically, English under 23 players ranked second for domestic minutes (behind France) and first in Uefa club competitions. Given the challenges presented, this represents a positive return and evidence of sustained progress.
Whilst clubs must ultimately take responsibility to review their pathway and explore ways to improve the transition rate of young academy players, organisations occupying leadership roles in the wider footballing ecosystem (e.g., leagues and governing bodies) represent important collaborative partners. For clubs, a clear and agreed vision, the existence of trust and empathy, underpinned by aligned processes responsive to an individual’s needs, appear to represent necessary elements. Firstly, an ownership and board-led long-term vision that acknowledges the club’s youth development aspirations is critical. A clear and agreed vision importantly provides a framework for decision making. If youth development is prioritised, this should have clear implications and evident impact on the decisions related to player transfers, contracts, and general investment.
Creating a viable pathway for talented young players is important. Victor Orta, the Director of Football at Leeds United Football Club, recently highlighted a policy that protects space in the squad for young players. The approach represents a deliberate attempt to create a pathway that facilitates the development of homegrown players. Separately, during a 365-day period commencing in February 2021 our first team played 40 games in the Premier League. These fixtures were fulfilled with the use of 32 players, a figure broadly reflective of the average across the league. Significantly, more than a third (n = 11) of these players would be considered academy graduates; each player accruing varying levels of game time and sustained activity with the first team.
Given the relatively short tenure of a head coach or manager, it is vital that clubs employ guardians of their philosophy. Radically Traditional studied organisations who have enjoyed sustained success. These ‘centennial’ organisations, as they termed them, were characterised by two distinct headline features, namely a stable core and a disruptive edge. A new manager arguably provides the disruptive edge that is necessary to evolve. This might involve changes to a playing style or training methodology. Complemented by a stability that safeguards an organisation’s identity, this represents a formidable partnership for progression. An instable core where purpose and identity are frequently negotiated ultimately creates confusion and inhibits continuity.
Deploying strategies that help support the development of trust between an academy and first team is vital. In his 2006 book Speed of Trust: the one thing that changes everything, Stephen R Covey considered trust a function of character and competence. In a transitional space this has implications for both staff and players. Senior academy staff and first team personnel must develop relationships embodying trust. An absence of trust will be debilitating and potentially impact the opportunities presented to young players. Whilst character arguably exists on an individual level, competence can emerge from a shared understanding of player development and potential. A shared understanding is often the product of a regular dialogue, which effectively serves to calibrate people’s views of individual players. This might involve discussing match performances and sharing training observations. Importantly, frequent feedback amongst staff operating in the transitional phase (i.e., academy and first team) should help enhance a player’s experience by clearly identifying agreed areas for development.
Empathy is closely intertwined with trust. It is important that both parties (i.e., academy and first team) appreciate and seek to understand their respective challenges. It is also important to acknowledge the inevitable tensions that exist. For example, an academy affords a time and space that is rarely available to a first team, which is under constant scrutiny from media and fans. Results in a first team setting represent the essential currency and this can conflict with the developmental needs of transitioning players. Arsène Wenger described management as ‘living on a volcano’, presumably in acknowledgement of the intensity and uncertainty inherent in the profession. Michael Calvin later adopted this phrase as the title for his 2015 book Living on the volcano: the secrets of surviving as a football manager, which provides an insight into the challenges experienced by managers. The competing tensions further emphasise the necessity for a vision that transcends a pathway and the importance of a clearly defined and stable club purpose.
The partnership between academy and first team staff is helpfully supported by aligned processes. This might include similar playing styles and approaches to set plays, which are designed to minimise turbulence during this critical transition. Indeed, our B team model at Southampton was introduced under this premise. The B team are philosophically aligned with the first team, operating a playbook that encourages a consistency in approaches to training and games. Ideally, individual development plans for the highest potential players are co-created amongst selected first team and academy staff. This should ensure a common language is deployed and a shared understanding of the demands and expectations evolves. Additionally, a schedule that permits regular opportunities for academy players (and staff) to observe and participate in first team training provides an important benchmark for performance. In recent seasons this has more formally involved a season-long sabbatical for selected members of the senior academy coaching team. Importantly, these interventions should help determine the training and competition needs of each individual player.
Facilitating a successful transition from senior academy player to first team player is difficult. However, this difficulty can be mitigated if an ownership-led and collectively agreed vision promoting young players is supported with an infrastructure characterised by the interdependent features of trust and empathy. As previously mentioned, each club is ultimately responsible for supporting the development of their players and creating conditions that enhance an individual’s progress. However, clubs operate within a broader ecosystem, and it is important to acknowledge the important role of leagues and associations. For example, the Premier League and Football League have effectively collaborated to provide young players an opportunity to feature in competitive fixtures against senior teams. The initiative, introduced during the 2016-17 season, invites senior academy teams to participate in the Football League Trophy. This opportunity complements the under-23 fixture programme and adds to the breadth of experiences that are necessary to prepare young players for the challenges evident in the senior game. Whilst it has not been universally accepted, the intent is clear and should be recognised.
The Premier League have previously reported the valuable role that a loan experience can have in a young player’s development. Specifically, there is evidence to indicate that a loan (or multiple loans) can provide a helpful platform preceding future Premier League appearance milestones. Whilst causality could be speculated and is likely to be individually determined, it is important that a loan system permits an appropriate degree of flexibility. A scenario where a young player has restricted playing opportunities and is locked into a loan experience for several months is counterproductive for all parties.
It will also be interesting to observe how the re-introduction of a rule permitting clubs to make five substitutions during Premier League fixtures will impact young player’s next season. Clubs will continue to be able to name a total of nine substitutes in their match day Premier League squad. Whilst intuitively this appears to present more opportunities, clubs must be mindful of an unintended consequence that could see young players deprived of meaningful game time and restricted to the role of an observer. This further emphasises the importance of detailed individual development plans with clubs ensuring their highest potential players are exposed to the appropriate training and match stimulus during a critical stage of their development.
Gareth Southgate recently called up 26 players to the England international squad in preparation for fixtures against Switzerland and Ivory Coast. The initial squad comprised players from 15 different teams, with individual development histories reflecting the diversity in transitioning experiences. A minority of the group have enjoyed Premier League opportunities as a teenager with their parent club, transitioning seamlessly following their academy experience. Several have negotiated the lower leagues (as both permanent and loan players) with carefully crafted and deliberately implemented development plans. Others have enjoyed less refined journeys that have seen them respond to setbacks during the infancy of their career. Each player has a unique story, which further emphasises the importance of a footballing ecosystem that is agile, responsive, and capable of facilitating multiple pathways to a first team transition. This outlook is broadly consistent with the conclusion Fifa reached following their extensive research into the transition of talent.
Edd is one of six Leaders Performance Advisors, a group of leading performance thinkers providing more subject expertise to our member-only content and learning resources. To find out more about all our Performance Advisors, click here.
The data accounted for 4,109 players. Whilst the data can (and should) be further interrogated and contextualised, it helpfully serves as a stimulus for further discussion on what constitutes success for an academy or talent development environment.
Although player progression is a necessary and essential consideration, a broader view of success that acknowledges the reality of Premier League attainment – a CIES Football Observatory report into the world’s top 100 valued players highlighted a majority plying their trade in the Premier League – and promotes the multitude of ways that an academy can demonstrate added value is important.
Our records at Southampton indicate that a player who joins the Academy at 8 years old (the earliest point of registration) and remains in the programme until they are 17-18 years old accrue in the region of 2,500 hours of training and game activity. This figure is probably (at least) trebled when you consider time on site, travel, and other purposeful conversations.
Given the scale of commitment from a young person, their family, and a club, the notion of reducing success to a singular output is unhelpful. It is vital that judgments on success align with an established vision and respond to the expectations of the various stakeholders invested in a young person’s development. These stakeholders are incredibly diverse and demand insight from a performance (or player progression), financial, parental, educational and holistic perspective. Additionally, it is important that system wide markers of success complement individual stories. A system committed to supporting individuals must ensure each unique story is celebrated and prominent in discussions regarding success.
Supplementing holistic development
Whilst multiple variables contribute to the footballing progression of each individual, several tangible performance milestones are often used to define success. These milestones are broadly reflective of the pathway that players are required to negotiate. In ascending order this might involve securing an academy registration, successfully transitioning between phases, the attainment of a scholarship, and securing a professional contract. These milestones generally precede a professional debut and the subsequent accumulation of appearances (and future contracts) at various levels of the game. On paper, this progression is presented in a linear fashion. The reality is certainly less straightforward, with a challenging pathway creating a series of experiences that can supplement a young person’s holistic development.
As a club we have established targets for the previously mentioned milestones. These targets reflect a projection of future success, are generally updated on a three-year cycle, and agreed in consultation with our Board. Explicitly aligning expectations between relevant stakeholders (e.g., Academy staff and Club Board) is critical and should encourage a collaborative strategy that supports success. For example, if a club promote a commitment to supporting young players transitioning into the first team, this must be reflected in the infrastructure and resources allocated. The targets serve as a useful reference that provide a basis for review and reflection. Additionally, these targets should help inform future strategy and investment. Whilst these targets are shared with and available to staff, the focus remains on the processes that are designed to ensure, in Bill Walsh terms, the scores take care of itself!
Academies: a positive financial investment
At the present time, our Academy accounts for approximately seven per cent of the club’s total cost base. Talking strictly in performance terms, if players consistently progress in our pathway this reflects a positive financial investment. Specifically, the cost per year to develop a professional player is significantly less than the financial outlay necessary to recruit a player of an equivalent standard. This could be further heightened with the impact of Brexit and the restricted access to European talent. Furthermore, if the first team squad features a healthy representation of Academy graduates, the economic value in saved wages and transfer fees is significant. Interestingly, a report by the Twenty First Group highlighted that realised revenue and cost savings from our Academy accounted for more than £30 million in season 2019-20. Additionally, Deloitte’s annual review of football finance 2021 highlighted that Uefa recommend clubs operate a 70 per cent threshold for wages to revenue ratio. Our 2020 club financial statements commented that in the absence of revenue impacted by the pandemic and no onerous contracts, our player wages to revenue ratio would have been 56 per cent. This further strengthens the valuable economic role homegrown talent can play.
In addition to the performance and financial indicators, which will satisfy certain stakeholders, it is important to acknowledge and celebrate the broader achievements of an academy programme. The reality of securing a career as a Premier League footballer is well publicised. Contrastingly, the narrative drawing attention to the skills cultivated on a development journey are arguably less prominent. Importantly, these skills can be highly transferable. Whilst everyone has a different and unique story, an academy environment can encourage the emergence of many highly desirable skills. Indeed, in 2020 the World Economic Forum published research that highlighted 10 skills that would support the future of work. Many of the listed skills (e.g., active listening and learning strategies; complex problem-solving; critical thinking and analysis; creativity, originality, and initiative; leadership and social influence; technology use; resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility; reasoning, problem solving and ideation) are arguably refined during an academy experience. These skills or characteristics are often less tangible than the previously mentioned milestones. However, they should not be considered less important.
Balancing challenge and support
Research has highlighted how resilience develops based on the interaction between challenge and support (see Fletcher and Sarkar, 2016). Whilst individually perceived, it is evident that an academy environment will consistently present a series of challenges. Inevitably, on a weekly basis there will be opportunities to develop new skills, play in a different position or age group, speak in front of peers, reflect on performance, manage time to maintain academic progress and interact with coaching and multidisciplinary team staff members. Whilst these elements are generally common and often deliberate in their presence, they represent a small sample of activity that excludes less frequent or emerging challenges. This might include injuries, deselection, or a loss of form that characterise the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) nature of sport. With an appropriate level of support, the emergence of resilient young people is a desirable by-product. Additionally, the highlighted scenarios (e.g., developing new skills or reflecting on a performance) can help further refine an individual’s capacity to be adaptable, self-aware, resourceful, and collaborative. These skills have an impact beyond the football pitch.
Positively, the environment can also create opportunities to occupy leadership roles. As an individual progresses through the pathway an expectation for them to take ownership of their development is vital. This might include speaking with the coach, requesting video clips or data from the analysis team, liaising with the sports science team on their physical programme or nutritional requirements, and discussing their pre-match routine with a psychologist. These interactions help refine a broad set of communication skills whilst consolidating a knowledge of physical development, preferred learning methods and preparation strategies. Whilst primarily designed to support an individual’s progression within a performance pathway, the impact should extend beyond the confines of a football club.
Several years ago, when asked what would constitute success, a former coach within our Academy proudly shared an aspiration that “players would want to repeat the experience, irrespective of the outcome”. This phrase has remained core to my beliefs and reflects the importance of viewing Academy success in broader terms. Success for an academy cannot be considered in binary terms (i.e. Premier League player or not). Success is multi-faceted, with different stakeholders naturally prioritising different markers, and individuals seeking to explore the fullness of their potential. We have an obligation to prepare individuals (staff and players) for the future. We cannot guarantee a young player a Premier League career or a board member a favourable return on investment. Importantly, and within our control, is an ability to demonstrate a daily commitment to a philosophy and the execution of a strategy that maximises the probability of success.
Edd is one of six Leaders Performance Advisors, a group of leading performance thinkers providing more subject expertise to our member-only content and learning resources. To find out more about all our Performance Advisors, click here.
References
Chaudhuri, O. (2020). The pitfalls when evaluating a successful Academy – there is a holistic financial model that tells a significant story
CIES Football Observatory. (2022). Weekly post – most expensive players. Issue 362
Cunningham, S. (2022). Premier League reveal 97% of players who come through top academies never play a minute of top-flight football
Deloitte Sport Business Group (2021). Annual review of football finance – 2021
Fletcher, D. and Sarkar, M. (2016). Mental fortitude training: An evidence-based approach to developing psychological resilience for sustained success. Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 7(3), 135-157
Vahid, E. (2021). How teams can support the non-linear development of young athletes
Walsh, B., Jamison, S., and Walsh, C. (2009). The score takes care of itself. Penguin Group, New York
Whiting, K. (2020). These are the top 10 job skills of tomorrow – and how long it takes to learn them
Jul 06, 2021
ArticlesDon Barrell of the RFU promotes the idea of clarity and alignment as well as a variety of contributing voices when it comes to the personnel working on talent pathways.
Don Barrell, the Head of Regional Academies at the Rugby Football Union [RFU], is a former player who was already coaching academy players before he retired. Yet for all his years of experience working in Talent ID and development, he is still all ears when it comes to addressing performance questions.
“Diversity is a real superpower in performance,” he tells the Leaders Performance Institute. “The more diverse you can make a conversation the better. You cannot work effectively unless you have independent people who can come in and challenge your thinking. If you’re having a talent ID review or selection meeting, I’d suggest you need every department in there providing their view of a player, otherwise you risk dropping into echo chambers. The broader the opinion in the room, the better it becomes. Subjectivity, done regularly, becomes objective. We need to be comfortable with that being a good thing, that’s the tension you have to hold as a system.”
Barrell, who previously shared six fundamentals to consider when establishing a talent pathway, turns his attention in the second instalment of our interview to the question of academy decision-making and the importance of diverse voices in multidisciplinary environments.
“The performance and development space should be a cross-department collaborative process,” he continues. “An oversimplification, but coaches can get upset when they do not win, which is an unavoidable reality. At that point, they shouldn’t be making decisions or giving feedback because they will not necessarily be tied to the athletes’ long-term objectives. If, as an organisation, you have a document that details what success in one year looks like and really clear, simple principles tied to multidisciplinary objectives, then better decisions can be made and feedback given in line with the long term in mind.”
“The big principle of any talent system is the end point and I’ll always talk about having the ‘end in mind’,” says Barrell. “If the end point is England Head Coach Eddie Jones using his criteria to select at that point, then we need to deliver towards that moment, understanding that the top of the game has so many influences. That’s the principle and purpose.”
Barrell oversees a gently graduated national programme that is supported by the Regional Academy club programmes across England. It is a multi-stakeholder process with each academy aligned to principles and guidance set down by the RFU.
“We want to see people really invested in their players at every stage of the programme – loving it, caring about it, and making it better. Then we need to accept that at any point in a transition in or out of a game selection, team or pathway; that a pathway coach is going to be really passionate, care about the person and may lose their objectivity – that’s fine too – and that’s why we bring in independence to provide that.”
Finding and embracing the paradoxes
What is more important: passion or objectivity? “You want both,” says Barrell, adding, “The whole talent space is full of paradoxes. Do you need to care or do you need to be standoffish and objective? Well, you need to be both. Do you want to win the game on Saturday or win the one in six years? Both. All these things, until we address them, can be roadblocks. You’ve got to find the paradoxes and then you’ve got to embrace them, the answers lie in there.”
The RFU has an essential role in ensuring England’s Regional Academy programmes are aligning in their working principles. “We constantly stay in the conversation and ensure there are clear decision-making frameworks. The reality is that some of the decisions made will be right, some of the decisions made will be wrong, but at least it’s clear.
“What can derail talent pathways is lack of clarity on decision-making; waiting to get a lot of stuff out onto the table in a room and people leaving unclear. Sometimes there isn’t an answer and you just need to commit to a direction. Then we’ll assess the decisions made. ‘Did that work? Yes’. ‘Did that work? No’. To be able to do that successfully, you need qualified practitioners, time, aligned stakeholders and a shared common understanding of a plan and direction. To achieve that at a club, your academy staff need enough autonomy to operate and enough freedom, space and independence to go and move things and enough time to implement them.”
Good intentions
“The best and the worst thing about systems is the people,” says Barrell. “Those human elements are ultimately what makes sport so exciting, so involving, and it’s why we’re all here, for all its idiosyncrasies, but they’re also the bits that can derail it.”
Nevertheless, he is certain that no one ever approaches talent pathway questions with anything other than good intentions, as he has come to learn in recent years. “Early in my career, I probably did what lots of people do, which is I thought people who worked at the top of the game were wrong in their view of developing young players, they’d only worked in one part of the game, but actually, that’s just their reality and it’s not wrong,” he says, “this is my reality and it’s not wrong. What we know is not the same.
“So how do you become very good at joining up two stories, two views of the world that are and need to be different? I’ll always try and work out what someone’s intent is and I’ve never found someone who’s not done something with good personal intent, despite the fact that I might completely disagree. Ultimately, there are not any ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ decisions.”
It comes back to clarity in principles and decision making. “At some point, someone’s got to make a decision and you have to trust that their intent is good. The conversation is probably around what were you aiming for and why. You can sabotage yourself in thinking someone has an ulterior motive and if you don’t understand people’s decisions that can be tough in this world.
“As an academy manager you have to be cognisant of that. What do I want people in service of? Where do I want them to go? Those sort of behavioural nudges are critical or you’ll lose people along the way and never be as effective.”
Leadership and people skills are essential. “If academy managers are not able to align people from all levels; boards, directors of rugby, head coaches, parents, players or, in football, your technical directors and managers and owners; if they’re not able to align those I don’t think they’d be able to make progress.
All of our new academy managers that now come on board, large amounts of their time is devoted to people management. We already know they can do all the rugby stuff and so we spend time with them, we give them business mentors and other resources because their programmes will fail off the back of them not having those skillsets – it’s more important than the sports stuff. They’ve got to be good at running multidisciplinary teams and maintaining independence. Outside, diverse views can be critical success factors for these programmes.”
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