{"id":9105,"date":"2021-09-29T17:40:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T17:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=report&p=9105"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:14:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:14:23","slug":"profiling-your-teams-environment","status":"publish","type":"report","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/profiling-your-teams-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Profiling Your Team\u2019s Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 29 Sep 2021 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Reports<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Profiling Your Team\u2019s Environment<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
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How often do you consider the relationships between the individuals \u2013 athletes, coaches and practitioners \u2013 in your environment and the wider team?<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

These interactions can determine how effectively your team collaborates and can even impact the ability of your people to learn, innovate and make better decisions.<\/p>\n

As teams begin to explore the possibilities of environmental profiling and the potential for defining their ecological dynamics, we reflect on a series of approaches to fostering the types of environment that promote learning, collaboration and resilience in times of stress.<\/p>\n

Creating cultures of learning<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2020, Sebastian Little<\/a>, an Executive Coach at McChrystal Group, discussed the basics of creating a culture of learning with the Leaders Performance Institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these things we talk about as clich\u00e9s are really important,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the idea of going from just doing \u2018the thing\u2019, to being it and embodying it as part of who you are as an identity. Some of the things off the top if you\u2019re trying to become a learning organisation: celebrate success, normalise failure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some cases, celebrate failure the same way in which you celebrate success. Because if you\u2019re failing it means you\u2019re leaning in and taking a risk, which ultimately leads to innovation, which leads to friction, which leads to conflict and finally to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you include learning as part of your process? The military continues to use the AAR process \u2013 After Action Review. In short, it\u2019s: what are the sustains? What are the improves? What are the resolutions that are going to help us drive to make sure we don\u2019t make that same mistake, or making sure we did that thing we did really well again? It\u2019s so important to build that AAR process in, whether it be individually or as a team.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood answers give us a specific and narrow focus. Asking more questions give us more possibility. So one of the best practices is: how can you become an expert question asker? Asking more questions can ultimately give better answers \u2013 so get more curious!\u201d<\/p>\n

Better collaboration<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you look at your multidisciplinary teams, there is a lot of talent in the room. But how can leaders better leverage that collective expertise?<\/p>\n

Little suggested three different buckets:<\/p>\n

1. Behaviours<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a leader, some of the best things I saw from my colleagues at McChrystal Group \u2013 and Chris Fussell the President is massive on this \u2013 he\u2019ll put this idea on the table, and then he pokes holes in it. He\u2019ll say \u2018this is something I\u2019ve been thinking about, but this, this and this is wrong with it \u2013 I\u2019d love some thoughts and feedback and how this can be better\u2019. What he\u2019s doing there is inviting people to challenge his way of thinking. It\u2019s not always natural from an authoritarian perspective for someone more junior to say \u2018here are the things I see wrong with it\u2019, but because he is able to invite it just by the way in which he delivers, and by his behaviour, it invites the rest of the organisation to get involved in that process of iteration and innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Forums<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you create open forums where idea sharing is invited and really welcomed? There are some forums that are going to be intended for decisions, which can be explained up front in the body of an email or invite, and there will be some forums which are much more around innovation and collaboration \u2013 and those ones are just as important.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Systems<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you create knowledge management systems that allow you to store the good ideas?\u00a0Knowledge management \u2013 where are you putting those captured AAR notes? Where are you putting the season review notes? How are you making sure they are going into a system that allows you to draw back on those ideas that were fresh ones, that we won\u2019t remember?\u201d<\/p>\n

Two-way communication<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the heart of Little\u2019s advice is effective communication between the people that make up a performance environment. This was a priority for Gregor Townsend<\/a>, the Head Coach of the Scotland men\u2019s rugby union team, upon his appointment in May 2017. He had a game the following month and then a hiatus until November.<\/p>\n

He would ensure it was not dead time, that he would convene a national camp for the players and staff and establish values and expectations, as he told the Leaders Sport Performance Summit in New York later that year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought that was perfect time to do it right in the middle of that four-month period,\u201d said Townsend, whose side have gone from strength to strength under his tenure. \u201cOur role then was to make sure that those players left that camp knowing what it feels like to be a Scotland camp; the key themes, how we operate, how we interact, our learning environment<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso getting to know each player, their expectations, who each of them are, they get to know each other better and we squeezed that into two and a half days; so that was really valuable time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ll have to do now between now and getting them back in camp in November is just continue those relationships individually, work with the clubs that they\u2019re playing with to know exactly what they\u2019re doing in terms of their training and their workloads, their form; so you\u2019re trying to influence and drip-feed certain themes and when you get them for that four-week period in November, hopefully they remember things that you worked on and they\u2019re ahead of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moderator Steve Gera, asked him to explain for the audience the \u2018very good hack\u2019 he had used to engage his players the week before.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did that in two ways,\u201d said Townsend. \u201cThe first way was coaching staff meeting every player; we had 42 15-minute meetings with players over those two days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also had three big team meetings \u2013 and this had been a theme throughout our summer tour \u2013 we get players to stand up, talk about who they are, their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe normally have a challenge as well so we get two players to do that in every meeting, they do a challenge, and the winner goes first, the loser goes second, and it\u2019s a great way for everyone to get to know more about each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is quite structured but it\u2019s also good to set up informal ways of doing that as well, [such as] making sure the players go out for meals together. We have open environments so people can meet each other more regularly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players have really taken to it; the players, the first few we did, were maybe a bit nervous talking about themselves in front of the group; but then we got to the stage where people are preparing PowerPoints on their family tree and talking about each other. It was great and you always find out something that you didn\u2019t know about a player.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd finally, when we did meet our players one on one, it wasn\u2019t just about rugby; we wanted to know where they were at, what they\u2019ve been doing, their goals and expectations for the season, feedback from us, but they also had to share something personal with us, so we got them to share something we don\u2019t know about them. We got some funny stories through that!\u201d<\/p>\n

Townsend\u2019s final thought on the matter touches on empathy and is aimed at the coaches in the room at the NBPA \u2013 even those who would consider themselves empathetic.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmpathy is something that we want to see in our coaches and players, to build those relationships,\u201d Townsend continued. \u201cBut you need structure to do it. You might have the most empathetic coach but he\u2019s pretty busy in his own life; cheat sheets are a great way to do it \u2013 reminders that it is someone\u2019s birthday today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hard-earned lessons of performance<\/strong><\/p>\n

With each competition cycle comes greater experience and a greater understanding of the needs of the individuals within an environment.<\/p>\n

Danny Kerry, the Head Coach of the Great Britain men\u2019s field hockey team, learnt numerous lessons with the British women\u2019s team over four Olympic cycles (including a gold medal in 2016) and no doubt would speak of even more following his first cycle with the nation\u2019s men.<\/p>\n

Several months before heading to Tokyo, Kerry checked in with the At Home With Leaders<\/a><\/em> podcast, where he described what four Olympic cycles had taught him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always talk about periodising and physiologically peaking,\u201d he said. \u201cI often talk about trying to periodise how we act and behave as a staff depending on what we feel are the needs of the programme at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere may be periods of the programme that we deliberately make very challenging, with elements of conflict and extreme hardship to engender, capability, and resourcefulness in the athletes. Then, as we go into major selection phases and into major tournaments, we\u2019re working with the athletes and very much raising their awareness around strengths that they know they can bring and then building a greater sense of self-efficacy within the team or within the athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe equip them and then, when we get to major tournaments, as a staff, we\u2019re not adding to anxiety we\u2019re taking away anxieties and creating an environment where the athletes feel very confident in the processes and in their abilities. Then they\u2019re able to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kerry, however, did not deny the grind. \u201cI worked with a very good strength & conditioning coach, David Hamilton [currently serving as Director of Performance at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers],\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said something to the effect that variety is the spice of life and training is essentially the porridge \u2013 and sometimes you have to embrace the porridge. That\u2019s always stuck with me. At times, you are trying to create difference, trying to create variety, trying to keep your athletes engaged, but also you have to embrace the porridge because you can only dress up certain things so many ways. That has been interesting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I think of someone like Kate Richardson-Walsh; to go through four Olympic cycles and keep coming back to do essentially the same hard, challenging thing year on and year on, and then ultimately be successful, it\u2019s because she had the ability to keep coming back, keep doing stuff that mattered.<\/p>\n

\u201cFundamentally, you can try to make the environment creative and engaging and inspiring, and you have a responsibility to do that, but at points it\u2019s pushing hard. There\u2019s no escaping that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Download Performance 23<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our latest Performance journal has landed, with Gareth Southgate, Head Coach of the England men’s football team<\/strong> leading the way with his reflections on defining and developing resilience. Elsewhere we spoke to the Arizona Diamondbacks<\/strong> of Major League Baseball, as well as the world-renowned New Zealand Rugby<\/strong>, and British Wheelchair Basketball<\/strong>, who runs some of the finest programmes in the sport. Edd Vahid of Premier League club Southampton FC<\/strong> also penned a column focusing on talent pathways.<\/em><\/p>\n