In season 4 of Welcome to Wrexham, the Disney documentary about the renaissance of Wrexham FC under the ownership of two Hollywood stars, Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) and Rob McElhenney (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), there is a crucial match on the calendar. In previous shows we have seen team talks given by the potty mouthed manager. For this game Rob Mac is asked to give the talk.
It’s inspiring. He begins by (nearly) name dropping some iconic North American sportsmen hinting that this is the kind of coaching that the most famous of golfers and basketball players have received before important games. Then he exhorts the team to stop thinking like grown men, they’ve reached the position they are in by being professional, by training hard and absorbing tactics. Now he says they should go out and play with the love of the game that they had as 10 year olds. It’s crucial, he repeatedly says, that they enjoy the game.
Our industry is going through massive change at the moment, you don’t need any kind of expertise to understand this. Some of the change is economic, some of it is about tech and the new developments in AI, and some of the changes affecting people are about pressures from shareholders, Private Equity or mergers. Most people do not like change, especially if they are not in control of it. Change means uncertainty about the future of the role you have, and this causes stress. It can take enormous amounts of energy to adapt, and being comfortable with being uncomfortable is, for many people, a contradiction that feels impossible to reconcile.
Change management is a massive industry in itself, and there are multiple theories of how to get people to change when their hearts are not in it. Chip and Dan Heath’s book, Switch, how to change when change is hard, explains, as of course the father of behavioural economics Daniel Kahneman, how even if you understand something needs to change rationally people still do not act on it. And in fact the theory goes back to Plato (who died in 347bc), the ancient Greek philosopher who said that in our heads we have a rational charioteer who has to rein in an unruly horse. Freud described the dynamic between the id and the superego. And anyone who has convinced themselves to eat more vegan food and go to the gym every other day and then pigged out at Greggs knows exactly how a sensible change that you’ve decided on can still seem impossible to do. And that is a change that you have decided on yourself. It is even harder when it is imposed on you.
Switch is full of useful and practical techniques, but most of them rely on corporations or businesses leaning into taking people on a journey. With the seismic changes going on for our industry it can feel as though there is no time for these techniques. You have to shape up, measure up, or you’re out.
So I propose a bit of McElhenny’s approach would be good if you are feeling the weight of the working world on your shoulders.
It might not exactly work to say you should play media or advertising like you did when you were 10 years old (although I can remember making up and recording my own ads as a kid with my friends – maybe for you it was a youtube video), but the point is to have fun at what you do.
As he says, you’ve got where you are through expertise, professionalism and dedication to your job. Now, whatever the pressure, if you possibly can, go out and enjoy it.