Learning from the All Blacks Part 1

I often wonder whether we are working on all the wrong stuff with our kids when it comes to teaching and learning. What if our learning day was filled with building reading, writing, and problem-solving work? More importantly, what if our learning day focused on leadership skills and how all young learners could benefit from leadership training and character development?

I’ve read my share of leadership books. But recently, I finished a book titled “Legacy” – the story of the All Blacks, a New Zealand rugby team that is one of the most successful sports’ teams in the world. James Kerr, the author of “Legacy” writes in the book’s forward (2013):

“When the opposition line up against the New Zealand national rugby team – the All Blacks – they face the haka, the highly ritualized challenge thrown down by one group of warriors to another. Maori believe that the haka draws up tipuna, our ancestors, from the earth to the soul. It summons them to aid us in our struggle here on earth with the sound of ngunguru, the low rumble of an earthquake –

Tis death! tis death!

I may die! I may die!

Tis life! tis life!

I might live! I might live!”

“Opposing teams face the haka in different ways. Some try to ignore it, others advance on it, most stand shoulder to shoulder to face it. Whatever their outward response, inwardly the opposition know that they are standing before more than a collection of fifteen individual players. They are facing a culture, and identity, an ethos, a believe system – and a collective passion and purpose beyond anything they have faced before.”

Often, by the time the haka reaches its crescendo, the opposition have already lost. For rugby, l like…much of life, is played primarily in the mind.”

“The All Blacks are the most successful rugby team in history. They have been called the most successful sports team, in any code, ever. In the professional era, they have an extraordinary win rate of over 86 per cent and are the current World Champions [South Africa has won the last two rugby World Cups in 2019 and 2023].”

“How do the All Blacks do it?”

“What’s the secret of their success?”

“What is their competitive advantage?”

“And what can we learn from it?”

“In June 2010, alongside photojournalist Nick Danziger, I was embedded for five weeks inside the All Blacks set-up as they began working towards the Rugby World Cup. This gave me a privileged insight into an extraordinary high-performance culture; I learnt that their methods provide an inspiring and effective model for leaders in other fields.”

“In February 2013, I revisited former team coach Sir Graham Henry and his right-hand men Wayne Smith and Gilbert Enoka, key figures in the All Blacks’ World Cup success, and asked them some questions of leadership. I also spoke to iconic former All Blacks, advertising men, management consultants, HR and engagement specialists, designers, teachers, lawyers, a cocktail of psychiatrists, psychologists and physiotherapists, an opera singer, a stunt pilot and experts in Maori tribal customs, language and beliefs. I cross-referenced the research to my own experience in brand storytelling, culture change and engagement for some of the world’s leading businesses in an attempt to explain the All Black’s exceptional success and how we might apply it to leading…our own lives.”

“What I learnt forms the basis of this book.”

“The haka reminds us of the inherent fragility of all life. How little time is given to each of us. An how much we still have to do.”

“It reminds us:

This is our time.”

Part 2 of ABPTL’s “Learning from the All Blacks” tomorrow.

Til then. SVB