Corporates of 90s play cricket and corporates of 2020 play football.
Cricket and Football, both are team games but are as different as Chalk and Cheese.
A Cricket team is collection of specialized skills, like bowling, batting or keeping wickets besides some general skills that everyone has, e.g. fielding and throwing a ball. Every player has a role and performs within the parameters set for it, to the best of his/her ability. For example, a bowler gets freedom to decide his field placing and how he would bowl. The captain has a key role and takes most of the decisions such as batting order, bowling changes and field placings. A captain who follows participative management style, may discuss with couple of his team mates, his seniors or his peers. Most members of the team may have some or limited say during team meetings when they may discuss strategies for various batsmen or bowlers. That is also a function of culture in the team. In some cases, only seniors join the discussions. Cricket also has different rewards, man of the match/tournament, batsman of the match/tournament or bowler of the match/tournament.
Football is a very different game. Most players have the basic skills related to ball control and passing such as dribbling. There are players who might have additional skills. Like cricket, football also has different roles such as goal keeper, striker, defender etc. but unlike cricket, the players often change their positions and take on different roles as per the need of the game. A striker may fall back to defend or in extreme situation, a goal keeper may go upfront to score a goal. Interesting thing is that in football, the captain does not direct or no one asks a captain before switching his role. There is fluidity and positions and roles change as per the need of the game. This is not to say, that the team does not meet prior to the game and has no strategy, but the strategy and tactics evolve or change during the game based on response from the opponent team. Football does not has individual rewards. Either the team wins or loses. Players may get rated for their performance, but there are no rewards for extraordinary performances or punishments for blunders. The biggest shame is facing your team or fans. It is collective win or loss. While a captain may get credit for win or blame for losing a match in Cricket, captains hardly find a mention in win or defeat in football. It is the coaches who are feted or blamed.
Corporate teams in 90s resembled cricket teams. People were drawn from different functional areas. Each person specialized in an area of knowledge. The team members were expected to contribute based on their knowledge and skill sets. The performance appraisal was that of individual with performance in the team as one of the criteria, it had no relationship with performance of the team as a whole.
Football is very different. Every player understands the purpose of the team and has all information of the match. The person is able to take his own decisions and responds to the situation. The business environment today resembles a football team. With advances in information technology, the information exchange is very fast and information asymmetry is minimal. The companies tend to lose any strategic advantage due to its innovations or strategic initiatives within a quarter or two. Market rewards companies that are nimble, responsive and can respond to tactical opportunities, like a football (https://rajneeshrastogi.wordpress.com/2017/02/26/what-corporate-managers-can-learn-from-football-teams/) .
The idea of structuring organizations and rewarding individuals is deeply ingrained. Unfortunately, most of the organizations have not been able to develop a culture of collaboration and cooperation and achieve the levels as seen in football. Besides appraisals systems, the organizations would have to change their work processes to empower teams that lead themselves ( https://rajneeshrastogi.wordpress.com/2017/03/18/building-football-teams-at-work/)
Cricket or football, whatever your game is, give it your best and enjoy.
Rajneesh Rastogi 