Dewayne Washington as a comment on Projects @ Work (free log in required) about Agile and Football.
The notion that an American football team is self-organizing needs a bit of clarification. Certainly during the play, each player reacts to the action in front of him. But the offense and in some part the defense is "executing the play book," at the same time.
Each player does not "make it up" as the play evolves. Each position has a role, either on offensive roles to move the ball down the field, or a defensive role to prevent that from happening. The QB calls that play and the offensive coach and the head coach design those p lays. Yes those teams are responsible for "scoring," but the football team executes those responsibilities through pre-planned plays that have been rehearsed (practiced) for hours, weeks, months, and years as a team.
Watching Jeremy Bloom run the ball on our home field looks like emergent action. But he knows what is happening down field, he knows the oppositions capabilities, he knows his teammates capabilities and has an agreed on strategy to catch the ball and "start running."
It just looks self-organizing and emergent. But it's much more complex than that. It's a fine tuned, well practiced, clearly defined set of actions that results in actual progress.
Dewayne makes great points, lost on many trying to apply self-organization and emergence.
- In American Football, plans are king. The playbook is now pasted on the arm of the Quarterback. The players have memorized the plays but number, the subtle changes made during the snap, and the emergent defensive actions of the opposing team are practiced.
- The rigor, discipline, and practice of the team in executing those plays is required for success.
- Of course the action emerges as the play is executed, but rarely is the action a surprise. This is the definition of a "broken play."
- Success comes from executing better than the opponent, not making mistakes during execution, knowing - stone cold knowing - what to do next as the play action unfolds.
All team sports do this. Soccer does as well, no matter what the suggestions agilest make about the team self-organizing the play inside the boundaries of the field. The ball is passed, defense forms, offensive responds, according the practiced plays.The play action evolves and the players respond. But everyone has a role they are executing. This vague notion of a complex adaptive system is notional at the highest level to the fan sitting in the stands. But the players on the field, the "adpative" part if critical. It's adaptive inside their abilties to execute the play book. Team loose when they cannot execute their play book, encounter offense they have never seen before and con't adapt and fail to execute their individual roles within the structure of the team. This is the difference between school yard football play and the Denver Broncos (not that they're that good since Elway left).
Last week Boston won the Stanley Cup (mcuh to the sadness of my Quebec wife), by simply executing better plays, practiced plays, plays that had been developed over the course of the season to match the Cunacks. It may look like chaos, but it's far from that, it's disciplined,planned action, responding to an emerging situation.
Those who suggest it is chaos need to strap on the skates or cleats and run a few plays with the Bruins. The Eisenhower quote about Plans and Planing (which was borrowed from a WWI German General) is true. But there is a PLAN and that plan has been thoroughly vetted for every possible outcome. What is not known is what order those outcomes appear and what new outcomes the enemy or opponent have devised in secret (this is why game films are critical to football and practice is closed).
But it's not chaos as you might think. It is only chaos when things go wrong. If you execute thinking it's chaos, you're gonna get beat and beat bad. I say this having coached highschool and played college team sports and planned and executed combat missions.
