An old colleague of mine espouses over and over that ‘Process Kills Joy’ In many ways he is correct because in the workplace people are happier to over-emphasise process rather than dealing with people and their subsequent behaviours. It is much easier to change a process or produce a 25 step safety plan rather than deal with the issue at hand which may be a dysfunctional behaviour which is causing the process to fail. But does the process need to kill the joy? I am great believer in that you need to focus on the process rather than the outcome. I can tell my players over and over that they must win this match but in all honesty that will make no difference to the outcome. What will make the difference is the hard work on technique, fitness, communication, game understanding and movement which will create the conditions for success. All this is done in the training sessions  during the week (the process). This  needs to be made challenging and enjoyable for them to improve so when Saturday comes, the game (and the outcome) takes care of itself. Knowing the team as I do now, there is a clear link to how they train to the performance on a Saturday. So we must make the process (training) as best as we can in order to engage the boys to develop individually and collectively in order  to improve.

The end result is still not guaranteed but at least they have set themselves up with the best chance of success. This success may not always be on the scoreboard but it just might be what they set out to do in their training sessions.