Netball nightmare to good dream?

"I have had dreams and I have had nightmares, but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams." Jonas Salk

My netball team doesn't win games very often, you could say it's a bit of a nightmare sometimes, and to find a way to fix this we must live in disequilibrium, that is find a balance between too much loss and just enough to help us win.

So what exactly is this balance? Well when you're trying to solve and adaptive challenge you experience loss. People are required to change the way they think and old ways of doing things need to be modified or sometimes completely gotten rid of. But there needs to be a balance, you can't have too much loss, otherwise people won't be willing to fix the problem and will become preoccupied with the pain that changing things is causing them.

So now you're probably thinking, sure, I have to find this balance when I'm solving an adaptive challenge, but what is an adaptive challenge, and what does this have to do with your netball team? Well let's use some examples. The problem of my team not winning is an adaptive challenge, because the root of the problem lies with the attitudes and values of the team rather then technical aspects such as positioning or skills. This means that the solution is unclear and finding one has caused a lot of arguments. For some netball teams this could be a technical challenge. A technical challenge is where the causes are clear cut and hence so is the solution. For example a team might be loosing because they're all playing in the wrong positions. All that needs to be done to fix this problem is put everyone in the right positions, (Heifetz, Grashow & Linsky 2009).

So now we know that there are two types of challenges, adaptive and technical, and that when dealing with my netball team the challenge is adaptive. If you're still a bit confused about the difference between the two, this video should help make it a bit clearer.

For my team, trying to find to help end my teams nightmarish losing streak is really difficult. This is because there is a gap between what we want within the team and what actually happens. We all strive to try our best no matter if we win or lose. However only a few players consistently try throughout the entire match. Some players begin to give up during the game if they realise we are losing. We have to learn to align our values with what we are actually doing, and this will be a difficult process that will involve trial and error, (Heifetz, Grashow & Linsky 2009).

The most challenging part of solving this problem is figuring out why this is happening and taking action on it. This is because finding out why we are losing can bring about very emotional responses some may even attack people's opinions. Just last Friday the team discussed what they thought was causing the problem was and how we should go about solving it. We took the time to listen to one another. The thing most lacking in leadership is the ability to listen generatively, to use your heart and mind to take in what people are saying and hence identify as many interpretations of the causes of the problem, (Scharmer 2015). This here is an example of the importance of generative listening, with a little bit of fun.

By using this technique when listening my netball team was able to take on board what everyone was saying and hence created a positive and collaborative environment. This conversation brought about some very emotional responses, but by using generative listening we were able to respond in an appropriate manner.

We found out that some people were unaware that others thought there was a problem, and didn't believe there really was one. Others thought that the reason we were losing was because we were trying to be too fair to everyone instead of doing all we could to win. There was a consensus that as a team when we started losing, a lot of us gave up. And this brought about the conflictual interpretation that some people just didn't really care about how their giving up affected the rest of the team. This made some people really upset, and they began to quiet down, not really wishing to participate anymore. However sometimes we need to hear these things.  Having these more conflictual interpretations opens up avenues for solving the problem, (Heifetz, Grashow & Linsky 2009). The aim, of course, is not to upset people, but sometimes in getting to the root of the problem this is the result.

During this conversation the team had to find a balance in resisting loss and accepting it. We decided that team members should be more involved in the running of the team through drills, strategy and choosing positions on game day. This may not work, and we may have to go back and try another solution, but by finding a solution which balances our losses and gains, we have moved a step closer to solving the issue. We're turning our nightmare into a good dream.

And I wish the same for you, I hope you can turn those nightmarish problems into sweet dreams.

References:

Heifetz, R, Grashow, A & Linsky, M 2009, The Practise of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing your Organization and the World, Harvard Business School Publishing, United States of America.

Scharmer, O 2015, Theory U: Listening, Edx/MIT online video, viewed 27 March 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_5CMLr6do8#t=402
CIL 2015, Adaptive vs. Technical - Dr. Ronald Heifetz online video, viewed 3 May 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwWylIUIvmo
Michael Bischoff 2010, Theory U: Illustrated through a silly game with kids online video, viewed 3 May 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byGUgoXFppE