Coherent Game Model

There's a lot of rot talked of succession planning^[1]. I'm not a fan of what passes for the most common misguided efforts in this regard across the corporate world.

It misses out on the fundamentals. The underlying mentality and systems that genuinely create sustainable, repeatable, adaptable success. Which are most pointedly not about whichever captain happens to assume the freshly vacated helm as voted in by those behind the throne.

In sport, there's plenty spoken about this. Wishing for the magic of a super-coach to fly in and transform, or continue, fortunes. The exceptions prove the rule.

Whereas little is mentioned about forming a winning culture that permeates from top to bottom, deep and wide, throughout a 'club'.

For instance, in team sports, do your Under-9s play in the same style as your First Team?

Not just come match day either. Is training consistent throughout? The drills done, periodisation on the clock or otherwise, tactical approaches.

The same holds true for Sales endeavours.

I can say with full confidence that the best achieving salesteams I've ran or helped, is because they've embraced this mindset.

Turning to a systems over goals outlook being the absolute key.

Yet there's a further angle.

I've involved non-sales crew in this. And the results are stunning.

The 'Game Model' of football translates well into solution selling.

Problem removing, issue focus, conversation engaging, legacy searching, difference makers.

Great results come from beyond the Sales silo. I've instilled this in coders, deliverers and service agents alike. Even our marketing cousins.

Pretty much all have taken on board and happily ran with the newly joined up, fresh thinking. Giving them renewed latitude to enjoy their role even more and feel a vital part of a larger whole.

How's your Game Model so ingrained?

[1]

"The great inconvenience that attends the grand idea of succession planning is that the moment when one’s managerial legend chooses to take his leave, there is never any guarantee that the preferred successor is ready to step into [let alone fill] his shoes."

Contemporaneous thoughts of senior English football journalist, Sam Wallace, April 2024, evoking the elite merry-go-round supremo gambles.