We are working for the Games. Expectations are high, and we want everything to be perfect. For that to happen, our colleagues must do their part, and suppliers must deliver on time. But then they don’t. Frustration and anger take over.
Now, we face two options: jump to conclusions and have an emotional response, or take some steps back, calm down, and understand what happened. If we choose to understand, we need to hear people’s complete stories and honestly check what we would have done if we were in the same situation.
The more we put ourselves in people’s shoes, the more we develop a realistic picture of the situation and its possible solutions. We don’t lose time blaming, shaming, and framing. We take the empathy step to bring people together as a team and resolve the issue more quickly.
Empathy is a highly loaded word, and it can mean different things according to person, time, and place. At Legacy Sport, we understand it as the effort to bring a “first person” perspective to what is happening to a “third person.” What if I retold the story I hear in the first person as if I were the protagonist?
As a result, people are not reduced to being a distant “other” – someone I cannot relate to because her character and actions have nothing to do with mine. They remain relatable. Thus, they deserve to be taken care of instead of getting rid of.
It is easy to see people as “others” in the international sports environment. We need to work with individuals from other countries with very different cultures. Their job may significantly differ from ours. Some are experts in coaching people’s behavior, others in deploying technology, and so it goes. Some have high leadership positions, and some are operational staff.
Empathy is the most effective way to bring people together in this environment. Often we hear Venue Technology Managers telling stories of how difficult it was at first to adapt to the work culture of a particular country where they had to live during a Games edition. Those who finally empathized with the local people learned to work with them effectively and even to appreciate them.
How could we ever make international sports competitions a tool for peace and understanding if we don’t encourage empathy? Without it, we have people fighting and judging each other, creating fences to separate “us” and “them.” Have you ever been in a situation like that?
Empathy in technology teams, as much as in sports and life in general, should be a core value. It prevents and heals wounds, and it nourishes relationships and partnerships. It is so crucial to the world that there are countless books, studies, and motivational talks about it. Still, this ability is underestimated by many and not fully considered when hiring and training tech teams.
It is not a difficult ability, but it takes constant listening practice to realize that we judge others based on what we know. To go beyond that, we need to search for what we don’t know and for what “we don’t know that we don’t know.” In other words, we need to ask good questions and be ready to be surprised.
What if our teams were known in the sports industry for their ability to build bridges with people from all cultures, fields, and hierarchical levels, as much as their technical skills? How much headache and rework would we avoid? And how much more fun delivering a sports event would be?
TEC – HEART – SPORT is our latest series of articles explaining the mission, vision, and culture that Legacy Sport shares with its community and the world. See below for a summary of each topic we will explore during the series.
Thrill
Expertise
Courage
Humanism
Empathy
Advocacy
Respect
Transparency
Sustainability
People
Olympism
Relationships
Transformation
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