Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Excellence Schmexcellence

Striving for excellence in whatever we do is important and often difficult. But it can’t be achieved through feel-good jargon

By André van Heerden, Communications Director

I’m a soccer coach for two rep teams. Over the past few years, I’ve had to do a very awkward dance every September when one soccer season ends and tryouts for the next begin. I’m not a good dancer and so I’ve found it difficult.

A few years ago, Ontario Soccer, following the direction from Soccer Canada, decided that there would no longer be tryouts for rep soccer teams—just “discovery sessions.” At these discovery sessions, coaches were to watch the players but not assess them as every player at the tryout was supposed to make the team.

This sounds nice and wonderful but there’s a limit to the number of players that can actually be put on the roster and on the field.

The solution was to form more teams so there could be more players. But that required more coaches, and in my case, there were none.

This meant that the discovery session was in fact a tryout where a certain number of players would be chosen to play rep soccer and others wouldn’t. This also meant that the soccer club’s marketing of and my introduction to the discovery sessions wasn’t accurate.

Parents and kids all understand the difference between house league teams—everyone who registers gets placed on a team—and rep teams, where only a select number of players can be on the team. They all understand the idea of tryouts and that it’s a difficult and stressful process.

What they don’t understand is being told that tryouts aren’t tryouts and that everyone will make the team—and then being told otherwise. That’s confusing and people naturally get upset by it.

Even if a process is difficult and stressful, trying to disguise it as something else is likely to backfire.

At work and in all areas of life, something shouldn’t be accepted as “excellent” or “progressive” just because it sounds good. It needs to make sense. It needs to actually work.

While it would make everyone happy to get glowing performance reviews on their work, people wouldn’t know where they need to improve.

It would be wonderful if everyone who applied for a job could get hired, but if a company only needs two carpenters, what happens if twenty are selected?

I’ve been enjoying the TV Series Superstore. It’s about the employees of a big box store and the employees’ various challenges. It’s often funny because it points out the disconnect between what good work and good corporate policy should be, and what the reality is.

Here are a few examples from the show:

Dina: “No! Nobody run! We have an elected store fire marshal who will lead us from the building safely. Elias! Where is Elias?”

Garrett: “I’ve taken four breaks today, so I guess we both got stuff to brag about.”

Steve: “We love this kind of passion and integrity that adds to all the colours of the cloud.”
Jonah: “Great, but you’re not actually saying anything.”
Steve: “That’s because I’m truly listening.”

Striving for excellence in whatever we do is important and often difficult. But it can’t be achieved through feel-good jargon or ideas that work on a white board but fail on the shop floor or on a sports field. It has to be specific, attainable, and focused on real people—people who have real challenges, real weaknesses, and real strengths.

Excellence Schmexcellence

You might be interested in