TACTICS
Tactics, strategy and culture are the three levels of action in an organisation, be that a team, a club, or a federation.
Tactics is the lowest level.
It is reactive and depends on our environment and opponent.
It includes thinking and acting with a goal in mind:
How to beat somebody?
It is reactive because it involves responding to the qualities and flaws of someone else.
Even though we ourselves are the ones acting, our actions are primarily conditioned by our surroundings.
We see that our opponent’s left back player is a good shooter, so we decide that our defender needs to play deeper.
As it is the lowest level of action, tactics and its consequences are easier to explain:
I’ve switched from a 6:0 defence to a 5:1, which stopped their central back.
We won the last game because we surprised them playing a 5:1 defense.
Although it’s not easy to spot, tactics is also conditioned by culture and strategy.
Even when we are not aware of it.
Even when we don’t create culture and strategy, but rather take them for granted.
Tactics has the lowest effect on long-term development, even if organisations tend to spend the most time and energy on it.
Great people talk about ideas.
Average people talk about things.
Small people talk about other people.
STRATEGY
Strategy is proactive.
It’s a higher level of action and involves planning and acting based on our own qualities and flaws.
The goal of strategy is to enhance our own value.
Strategy is more complex to shape and implement than tactics because it demands a certain ability and perseverance in planning and implementation.
It is more difficult to explain because it is more complex than tactics and there is often no direct connection between our current actions and a specific event.
If we teach Bruno to stop an offensive player without someone helping him in a large space since the age of seven, it’s likely that, he will be able to do it by the time he becomes a senior.
If we create a system for him where there is always someone helping him because we developed our tactics from one game to the next in order for our team to win, and for him to have an easier time playing, it’s likely that, by the time he becomes a senior, he will constantly ask his teammates for help in defense.
How do we tie these ten years of development his defensive skills with a senior game
during which Bruno couldn’t prevent the left back from scoring goals from the 9 m line?
When creating a strategy, it’s necessary to be able to predict well.
It’s easy to see how handball is played today and which abilities are crucial to playing it efficiently.
Who can predict what a game will look like in 15 years, when today’s young players will be seniors?
Which qualities should be developed in kids today to make them efficient players as seniors?
CULTURE
People need to belong to something larger than themselves.
Culture is the highest and most complex form of action and it has the highest influence on a club, because it is based on a system of values which shape the organisation and people in it.
The culture of an organisation is best described by the everyday actions of its members. From leaders, to coaches, senior players, to the youngest kid and his parents.
Creating and renewing a culture is a living thing and demands everyday work and interpersonal action. Each new member brings his own attitudes which can influence an entire organisation.
The most important person in creating the culture of an organisation is the leader.
He has the power of influencing people, and spreading his ideas has the highest influence on everyone.
It is also natural that, with time, people with a similar belief system gather around the leader, which only enhances his influence.
A good coach can change a game.
A great coach can change a life.
John Wooden
Creating and renewing universal values is not accessible to people who cannot perceive processes, but are only able to react to people, things, and events around them, i.e. people who are good at tactics.
Creating a culture is the most complex aspect
because it demands the ability of abstract thinking.
This is the prime reason why there are so few clubs with a unique culture.
Most just tend to copy the examples which have good results, and in the case of failure conclude that these clubs simply ‘have more money’.
Top 10 Richiest Football Clubs:
Manchester United, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, FC Bayern, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Juventus, Tottenham
Most watched club with an average of 80 000 people: Borussia Dortmund
In addition to this, the second most important factor is time.
The more complex a change is,
the more time it takes for it to have an effect.
Action is focused on people, and people need a certain amount of time to accept and carry out an idea.
On the other hand, if human action is persistent, stability is guaranteed.
The shortest way to success is money, but it is also the quickest way to failure when clubs that base their success on money alone run out of it.
The success of clubs with a developed culture and a clear strategy also depends on money, but in organisations like these, money is just one of the results of action.
Their stability is not conditioned by money,
but by the actions of the people.
The biggest problem with describing culture is that the results or numbers of two clubs with completely different cultural characteristics can, at one point, be completely identical.
