Friday, July 3, 2026

Scoring a Goal When the Posts are Blurry

Strategy, trust, and the beautiful game

By Geoff Dueck Thiessen, Regional Director, Winnipeg Member Centre

Anyone watching the FIFA World Cup?

Sometimes called “the beautiful game,” soccer/football can also be agonizingly frustrating game to watch.

Not just because of the dramatic injury enactments, but because it can be very difficult to score a goal. So many scoring opportunities come and go with the ball kicked or headed just wide of the post—and very often too high—over the crossbar.

The mechanics of kicking the ball where you want it to go are not that complicated, at least on a basic level.

For example, if you want the ball to stay low to the ground, lean over the ball with your foot pointed toward the ground. If you want to the ball to go higher into the air, lean your weight back and get your foot under the ball.

But it’s not that simple. Often, when a player kicks the ball over the crossbar, it’s because they’re too excited and lose their form, or the ball came to them on a pass or deflection and they couldn’t get their body into ideal position. For the golfers out there, it’s like picking the right club, keeping good form, and accounting for things like the wind.

Yes, I have been setting up an analogy to talk about labour relations. I mean, if you start a blog talking about labour relations, you’re going to lose some folks. But stay with me a moment. Like soccer and golf, labour relations involves conflict, changing conditions, and the challenge of making good decisions under pressure.

Let’s play with the analogy. Scoring a goal in labour relations involves resolving a conflict. In collective bargaining, that means reaching an agreement that is ratified by the membership. In a grievance settlement, it’s properly representing our members, holding the employer accountable, protecting good process, and getting to a place where we can satisfy the justice component of our work (and avoid a complaint by the member to the Labour Board).

When we shoot the ball, imagine one goal post is the tactical side of the conflict and the other is the relationship side. You need both. Without trust, it’s hard to reach a good agreement. People want to walk away feeling respected—not just satisfied with the result, but with how they were treated along the way. CLAC is pretty noisy about the belief that relationship is important, a key component to preserving the dignity of others.

Relationship can’t solve everything though. Some amount of tactics is also critical. Tactical thinking is where the planning and decision-making comes in. What knowledge do we need to have to protect the interests of our members? How much of that knowledge should we share and how much should we keep quiet? How will we plan for the possibility that the other party isn’t acting trustworthy, or maybe has a set of interests that are incompatible with my own and those of my members? How should we use timing?

Some of us prefer tactical thinking. Others prefer relational thinking. We might find that those folks who rely too much on tactical thinking struggle with relationships and push others away. And those who rely too much on relationship might struggle to reach their goals and can’t be relied on to get where they need to go. They may also get taken advantage of.

Maybe soccer/football is so hard because 22 people are trying to control a round object using only their feet and their foreheads. And each person is a different height, weight, age, skill level, with variable weather, travel … There is actually nothing simple about it.

Getting it right in labour relations is hard. It means holding the tension between tactics and relationships.

Most of us naturally lean toward one side or the other. Some are more comfortable with strategy and tactics; others prioritize relationships. That means certain situations will always feel uncomfortable, and scoring the goal won't come easily.

Maybe that's what makes it a beautiful game. The goal isn't to choose between tactics and relationships, but to learn how to hold both at the same time.

Scoring a Goal When the Posts are Blurry

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