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Dear Dr. Phil
Having worked with cheating hillbillies and dysfunctional redneck families for a number of years I am imagining that you might need a new source from which you can feed your show with topics. Well, let me introduce you to Sundsvall and in particular the soccer team GIF Sundsvall.
With out exaggeration this might be considered the Holy Grail for a talk-show shrink. The number of seasons and topics you can retrieve out of the city, team, leadership and supporters is never ending
Before we go any further let me give you the context.
I am writing to you from Sweden, a country in the northern outskirt of Europe. The country itself is abut 1572km from north to south, that is about the same distance from New Orleans in the south to Detroit in the north of USA. Sweden has a population about 9.000.000. The lower third of the country is hosting 8 out of the 9 million people, leaving the northern two thirds with only 1 million inhabitants. There is plenty of space. One of the major cities in this northern area is Sundsvall. The town itself has a little less than 100.000 inhabitants.
The city has got a long industrial tradition, forestry, paper & pulp and aluminium being the traditional source of income. This has however changed over the last decades. A number of public offices have been outsourced from the capital to the city. The people in the city would most likely vote for Stalin but loves the lifestyle of Todd Palin. (see there is a show).
Sports have always played an important part in the everyday life of people in this part of the country. The four major team sports are in order Ice hockey, Soccer, Basketball and Bandy (a very local sport in our part of the world). The city has produced a number Olympic, World and NHL-champions, but never a team in ANY sport taking the national title. (another show)
GIF Sundsvall is the local soccer club. A club that has produced a lot of great players without ever having won a title. Should I tell you everything that has been going on in and around this club the last decades I would most likely need more space than the bible I am therefore giving you a few ideas of suitable topics for your show.
Show number one – Self-deception.
I spent 3 seasons going to every away game of the team. During that period I had to wait 22 months between two victories. I am a well-educated, academic and rational person. If I look at statistics, facts and figures I can see that my team is about to loose. Why is it that I neglect those facts and trust my gut feeling even though it has proven me wrong time and time after time again? Why do I always believe that today is the day when the tide will turn and why do I always get surprised and disappointed when it does not?
Show number two – Importance of continuity
During the last four seasons the team has experienced eight different constellations of coaches. During this period the team has underperformed in relation to its capacity. Is there a connection between the lack of continuity and the performance of the group? How can we give the board of the club the right tools to actually succeed in picking a coach? What type of profiling is necessary?
Show number three – Why do we fail in moments of truth?
The team has been on the brink of success a number of times the last 4 years. A win against a relatively ”easy” team is the only thing that has been standing between our goal and us. In those crucial moments we have always failed to deliver. The only times we have succeeded is when circumstances has given us a third or forth chance. So why Dr. Phil do we fail when others succeed? Are we the Cliff Barnes of soccer?
Show number four – Comfort zones.
It seems that the club on many levels are suffering from the hazard of comfort zones. On a board level it seems that consensus and a feel good factor in the group is highly prioritized in relation to being of a different opinion or speaking out loud. No one wants to risk being excluded from the group by being different. There is also a hesitation about bringing in competence from the outside that might question the modus operandi of the board.
On a management level it is more a question of that it is nicer to be the most beautiful girl of the saloon than an average girl in Paris. If ambitions only are reflected in your own mirror any sort of evolution is impossible. In order to develop you need to leave the notion of you being fantastic. Leave the comfort zone, look around you and learn from those who are better. But to find them you need to realize that they are better.
On a player level it is reflected on the performance on the pitch. The players simply do not take ”one for the team”. In a 50/50 situation our players are most likely to come out with the short straw. The older players are realizing that it is going downhill and do not want to risk anything that can terminate their career. The younger players seem to think that GIF is as high they can get. We need to show them the possibilities in outperforming themselves.
Board, management and players are all in their comfort zones even if they look different. How do we challenge them to leave these zones to take a step further?
Show number five – Impossible is nothing.
There are plenty of teams with the same prerequisites as our team. They come from cities about the same size as ours, with the same sort of demographic profile. These are teams who are delivering year after year. How can we use them as an example to show that it is not impossible to build something sustainable, successful and lasting?
How do we focus on the possibilities rather that the obstacles?
I hope that you will consider going to Sundsvall. I am not interested in sending you an invoice for my idea. I would however appreciate if you could sponsor us with, let's say, a coach, a goaltender, a defender, a midfielder and a scorer. Do we have a deal?
/Björn Höglund