I’m not a huge fan of sporting analogies in a business context. Most are a bit obvious, a bit trite, with little in the way of genuine relevance or application. However, I became aware of two over the last week which I thought merited broader consideration. Firstly, James Kerr’s ‘What the All Blacks can teach us about the business of life’ is fascinating. Three insights point to why this island of just 4.4m can produce a sporting team that has been at the forefront of the game for generations and are the current world champions. And the book’s insights demonstrate as much about team and organisational alignment as they do about sporting success.
Whoever you are, whatever the success you have attained, the skipper or the rookie, at the end of an All Blacks game, you clean up after yourself. The mud, the bandages, the fragrant socks. You literally sweep the sheds. Humility is a key part of the culture. No one is above sweeping the shed, no one is above the team. And for that reason, everyone in the group has to follow the whanau or spearhead. The All Blacks see themselves as an extended family – character is as important, if not more so, than ability. ‘No dickheads’ is a key mantra – a few high profile British rugby players (let’s call them, say, Gavin or Danny) might struggle then to make this side. Finally, for a sport that, by necessity is about short careers, more important for the All Blacks than personal glory is leaving the jersey in a better place. Or enhancing the legacy of the team. The reputation or brand of the team is all important.
Imagine enhancing the levels of humility, selflessness and future focus within your organisation. It is perhaps no coincidence that the All Blacks have one of the pre-eminent brands within world sport, regardless of which sport. They have a brand, an ethos and culture that everyone buys into. No one puts themselves above it, because the team and the brand are more important. Sounds like some pretty compelling employee engagement to me.
Another example, from a sporting arena closer to home, caught my eye this week. Footballers, as a rule, appear to go out of their way to invite disdain and ridicule. However, there was a great example of team unity and engagement from Arsenal Football Club. Their manager, Arsene Wenger, went out of his way to criticise one of his players for a serious infringement of team protocol. And what of Matthieu Flamini – for it was he – and his heinous crime? The midfielder had taken scissors and hacked away at the sleeves of his match day shirt. Apart from not possessing, it would appear, much in the way of a steady hand, Flamini had broken an important rule at the club – you wear the same style of shirt as the captain. No exceptions. No excuses. The skipper wears long sleeves, everyone follows suit. We are behind our captain, our leader. We follow him.
Flamini, for two consecutive games, however thought otherwise. Cue much indignation from within the club – we are about the team, shared direction, alignment was the unvoiced criticism. And for a man likely to be earning north of £60,000 a week, with ten years of top level football under his belt, there was just one choice to be made – a heartfelt apology and a promise not upset the kit man again.
This sense of unity and sharing the direction of travel are key elements of engagement and an organisation’s employer brand. Interestingly, both sides have achieved a lot with relatively modest resources, have behaved well and whose stars appear to possess humility and humbleness. Right now, the All Blacks have come through 2013 having won every game they played and Arsenal sit on top of the Premier League.
Adidas, the All Blacks’ shirt sponsor, make a neat link. This week sees the launch of their new employment based video, based around the concept of ‘Make Greatness Happen’. And the sense of enabling greatness seems entirely appropriate to the sense of team and humility espoused by the All Blacks and Arsenal. Some of the stories we hear within the video appear genuinely grounded – ‘These are not just colleagues, these are my people, my friends.’ And if Tony Cooke, Adidas’ HR Director likens an employment hire with signing a new footballer, the timing seems apposite.
Just today, figures from recruiter Astbury Marsden suggest that new financial services vacancies within the City/Canary Wharf are up a monthly 6% and 38% on a year on year comparison. The City, despite a now established recovery, has been slow to translate business sentiment into new hires, and these findings mark yet another positive outcome of the UK’s growing upturn. And banking is not alone. Just last week, research from accountancy firm, BDO, suggested that smaller listed firms are seeking to create more than 200,000 new jobs in 2014. The percentage of such firms seeking to increase headcount is 72% – a year ago, the same research put the amount at 43%.
Talent mobility is gaining traction. Organisations need to understand and act – their existing people will sense they have opportunities elsewhere in a way that has not been the case for five years. They will also possess a growing sense of confidence to act on such external opportunities. And when the same employers go out to market to recruit, the competition they face will be at its strongest since 2007.
The All Blacks do not throw money at people and Arsenal have often been accused of under-paying. Instead of financial return, talent is attracted to a clear, democratic and articulated culture. Regardless of standing, experience or salary, no one sits above the team. Everyone believes and buys into the brand, the togetherness, the jersey. (A jersey with sleeves as long as the captain says they are).
And if Macleod thinks there is a clear correlation not only between engagement and performance but, more specifically, between improving engagement and improving performance and the Corporate Leadership Council suggests that increasing engagement can improve performance by 20% and an individual’s probability of staying by 87%, perhaps we all need some All Black in our brand.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 
I mostly buy this. I am more of a fan of the business/sporting analogy than you are – see Clive Woodward's 'Winning' as a business management tool and it all falls into place – but I don't think you refer to analogies, merely good examples of a strong brand driving a powerful EVP. I've worked for some very strong brands (Nike, Williams F1, Saatchi) and the same is true in every case: people want to work for brands that stand for something. When that 'something' is lived and breathed on the inside as strongly as it is perceived from the outside, then there is spiritual unity. Once that happens we derive meaning from our work that moves monetary reward lower down our personal benefit hierarchies.
The All Black brand is bought into by all All Blacks. One of the brand values happens to be humility, as evidenced by the example you state. But it could just as easily have been arrogance, in which case a different behaviour would have resulted. The point is: buy the brand, buy its values, irrespective of what those values are.
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