The WICB: Over-managed and under-led

(TRINIDADEXPRESS)Soon, the Committee appointed by Caricom to examine the structure of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) will complete its mission and deliver its report and recommendations to the Prime Ministers’ Sub-Committee on Cricket.

Will the WICB welcome this report and embrace its recommendations, or will it treat it like the Patterson and Wilkins reports? Who knows? Only time will tell. One wonders if the WICB really understands the impact of design and structure on organisational performance.

No matter how good people are they will not perform well if the organisation in which they are working is badly designed. Organisations usually get the behaviour that they design. If an organisation is not doing well its leaders should look closely at its processes, systems and structure. If people in the organisation repeatedly resist change, they are working in an environment that undervalues learning, growth and development. And if members are not good team players, they are working in a structure designed for individual performance.

Whatever the Board’s response to the Committee’s report, let us hope that commonsense prevails. We must remember though that in general, when we are dealing with human beings we are not dealing with creatures of logic; we are dealing with creatures of habit, emotions and self-interest; creatures who crave status, recognition and power.

Restructuring the Board is absolutely necessary but that alone will not change its fortunes. Other important change factors will be required. For years, the WICB has just been a management organisation, hence the Board’s poor performance and its adversarial relationship with its players.

To manage is to control, manipulate and seek obedience. To lead is to guide, influence, inspire and motivate. Successful sports organisations balance these two entities. They manage things — systems and processes — but lead and motivate their people. Running a Board with only management skills is like trying to cut a piece of paper with half a pair of scissors.

Looking at the performance of the WICB over the years, one can only conclude that it has been badly over-managed and dangerously under-led. The single and probably the most significant factor in the success of any organisation is the behaviour of the people who are leading it. Like any poorly performing organisation, the WICB should now take a careful and honest look at itself and the quality of its leadership. It is very difficult for an organisation to rise above the level of its leadership.

Good leadership starts with self-leadership. The first step in improving your organisation is improving yourself. Too many people who aspire to lead and develop others have not learned how to lead and develop themselves. Changes in the organisation begin when leaders walk the talk and transform themselves.

Leaders in the WICB must now embrace change and development and design a new future for itself and its players. They must become dealers of hope and help their people to see beyond where they are at the moment to what they can become in the future.

Performing better is often more about unlearning bad habits, poor attitudes, limiting beliefs and outmoded traditions than about learning or adding new ones. There are two bad habits the WICB must immediately unlearn.

The first is its tendency to blame other people and other things for its performance problems. In unsuccessful companies, members are always blaming other people or circumstances for what they are. But the people who get on in the world are the ones who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can’t find them they make them

The second bad habit is the Board’s sensitivity to criticism and its inclination to have it in for anyone who dares to give negative feedback. This is depressing because constructive criticism is feedback about what needs to be questioned, improved or changed. Without measurement and feedback organisations stagnate and fail. What gets measured gets handled.

What are the odds of WICB making significant changes? Not very high because 73 per cent of organisational change efforts usually fail. According to the experts this often happens because some leaders try to change other people without first changing themselves; without focusing on and implementing the basics and first important priorities of their business; and without eliminating bad habits, corrupt practices, and outmoded beliefs and traditions.

If the Caricom Committee and the Prime Ministers’ Sub-committee on cricket advocate change, they of course will be convinced of the importance and benefits of that change. But the people in the Board who have to accept and implement the change might not see its value because it might challenge their status, interests, personal goals and aspirations. Even if members accept the need for change they might disagree about the method, extent and pace of change.

Let’s pray that the WICB embraces the recommended changes and adopts the fundamental principles that are responsible for good organisational performance. A commitment to the status quo is no longer a viable option. It is a prescription for further failure or worse.

Dr Rudi Webster is a

former West Indies team manager and

performance enhancer