Project Management Lessons from the French
Last week we wrote a blog post on the project management lessons that we could learn from the early exit of the English Rugby team from the Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand. This week we continue with the theme of project management lessons by looking at the surprise success of this tournament from the French team who have reached the final on Saturday against the always fancied All Blacks from New Zealand.
Project Management and Rugby
In last week’s post on project management lessons we discussed some of the major principles that are important for a successful project and compared these to the record of the English team in this tournament. These project management lessons can be viewed in the previous post so we will not look at them again here, rather we will discuss some project management highlights from the French campaign.
A unique approach to project management by the French
From a project perspective many aspects of the French project in this Rugby World Cup has fallen well short of expectations and has often appeared rather chaotic, poorly planned and poorly executed. So lets look at some of the standout aspects of the French project.
Project Leadership at the top
The French project is led byMarc Lievremont. Many questions have been raised as to is there any logic to his “madness”. His leadership skills have been derided because of his inability to unify his squad which has been racked with internal bickerings, criticisms and internal strife. Allegedly, some of the senior French players do not even speak to Marc Lievremont. However, division may be okay in French project culture. French football coach Raymond Domench suffered the same criticisms in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but similar to Lievremont he was successful in getting his team to the final.
Project Management Leadership from the Project Leader
The notable unpredictability the French forwards have brought to this tournament is their discipline. They have played in a controlled manner, well lead by their project leader and captain Thierry Dusautoir. There’s probably been no better display of leadership at this World Cup than how Dusautoir handled the Sam Warburton tip tackle on Vincent Clerc. He ordered his forwards to retreat, to not take justice into their own hands and allow referee Allain Rolland to manage the situation.
The French project has been “good enough”
The French team have very ruthlessly applied the 80/20 rule to their rugby matches and have done just enough to complete their project phases en route to their final. They have not chased perfection and “Suffisance vaut abondance” is the French equivalent of “enough is as good as a feast”. In all their games the French have just done enough and they have demonstrated an ability to grind out a win which has led to their success. The French have brought a lesson to rugby, something football has known for years, that winning World Cups is not about consistency in performance. A result is a result and sometimes a result does not even need to be a win. Just like projects, major tournaments are about creating enough advantage to string a sufficient number of results together and not chase perfection. The French are being criticised for the unconvincing way they’ve made it to the finals. However it’s this apparent project weakness that could turn out to be their strength because throughout this project they have shown the innate ability to do “just enough”.
Successful projects usually have a bit of luck on their side
All successful projects need some luck and this French project has had a lot of luck because here is a team that has made the finals without having played their best game. In fact, it could be argued that the French have not even played one good game – a full 80 minutes of rugby. Their success has come from four patches of good fortune:
- their opening 10 minutes against the All Blacks in their pool game
- scoring a late try against Tonga (thus securing a bonus point)
- a poor 40 minute (first half) performance from England in the quarters
- the tip tackle and the subsequent sending off of the Welsh captain in the semis
So in total we’ve seen 60-70 minutes of “winning” rugby from the French in this whole project but it has been “good enough” to keep their project on track. What if the French are lucky again and also play 80 minutes of rugby this weekend? Then think the unthinkable!
Well, here at JMR Consulting UK Ltd, we specialise in working on projects for the insurance sector and, whilst we recognise the need for a bit of luck, we focus our time helping insurance organisations to better deliver on their project plans and execute those project plans better.
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