We’ve spent the last two weeks on holiday, offering much
needed time to reflect and think, and also the opportunity to catch up on
reading. Every summer, I try to take in at least one book on pastoral practice,
to make me think about my priorities, and this year was no exception. I wasn’t
disappointed by David Hansen’s Art of Pastoring, challenging and full of
wisdom, but the most thought-provoking reading on leadership came from an
unexpected source.
Graham Hunter’s Barca tells the modern history of Barcelona Football
Club, culminating in the recent reign of Pep Guardiola’s wonderful side who won
11 trophies in the four seasons from 2008 to 2012.
The story of Barcelona’s recent success is the ultimate
demonstration of the importance of corporate culture. To find the roots of
Guardiola’s success, you need to go back to 1988 when the club persuaded one of
its greatest players, Johan Cruyff, to return as manager. Barca won four La
Liga titles and one European Cup with Cruyff at the helm, but those headlines
can’t begin to do justice to the legacy he left behind. A more important
contribution was his overhaul of the club’s famous youth development system,
the cantera (literally ‘quarry’) based at La Masia.
When Cruyff arrived at Barcelona, each age-group at La Masia
played a different style of football, depending on the coach. Cruyff, however,
insisted on a wholly different approach, with the same tactics taught to
players at each stage of their development. Even at the age of 12 or 13,
players at La Masia now play seven-aside football with a 3-2-1 formation that
closely matches that of the senior side (two overlapping full backs either side
of a ‘pivot’ in defence, and Xavi and Iniesta type midfielders behind one
forward).
So next time you watch Barcelona’s irresistible football,
and a beautifully fashioned goal, try to appreciate that it wasn’t conceived a
week ago on the training pitch. It’s been years in the making, it’s not a way
of playing a game but rather a philosophy. Barcelona Football Club doesn’t
train its players, it moulds them.
And all of this has got me thinking again about the role of
a pastor. Is it just to get results next Sunday, or rather to shape the culture
of a church, to establish norms and practices which will still be forming
disciples many years later?
Short term thinking produces results of sorts, but all too
often it’s something shallow, lacking deep enough roots to sustain longer-term
fruitfulness.
There’s a final insight offered by Hunter which seems
especially relevant to this issue of leadership and culture. He writes about
the constant queue of coaches from clubs around the world who want to come and
visit Barcelona, to see how they operate. But he points out that ‘… unless the
club from which the person is sent is ready for a total overhaul of its
scouting, development and training structure, as well as its basic football
philosophy, then picking up ‘bits and pieces’ of the Barca credo is a waste of
time.’
Purpose Driven Football Club?
