Six Nations Values

So England failed to nail the Grand Slam. Hammered by an Ireland presumably embarrassed they’d been previously absent from the tournament. Catching the interviews from the game beforehand I was struck by one response from a young Scottish player. In assessing the impact of beating Italy to avoid the wooden spoon, he said;

“… one of our key values is to inspire the nation”

It’s not the type of phrase you associate with an emerging sportsman. Can you ever imagine a footballer saying such like?

Turns out that Scotland’s English coach says that they have a quartet of these.

• show progress
• earn the respect of opponents
• players enjoy Test matches
• the team inspires the nation

I’ve been party to exercises that seek to establish values. The creation of such a common bond can be so powerful within companies. Alas, the two times I’ve been around this, serious cultural shortcomings prevented any genuine development. But it remains a cracking pursuit.

What are your sales values? When do you communicate them to your customers? What’s the reception?

Then as the usual BBC flannel to try and ‘hype’ their generally woeful coverage, this poem, The Victor supposedly by a CW Longenecker, was recited by various rugby celebs. Add it the list of ‘motivational’ verse (here in alternate performance for Soldiering On);

After defeat, an understandably disappointed England Team Manager faced the press. Martin Johnson said that his young team must “take it on the chin”, “wear the scar” and remember the pain to drive them when next in a similar position.

Talking specifics, he touched on the large error count in an interesting way. To précis, if each person makes one mistake, then that’s fifteen mistakes – and you won’t win any game like that.

I can recall many a sales campaign meeting where to riff on this theme would have worked wonders.