Teamwork for activism: lessons from the links

Golf is an unlikely sport in which to learn about teamwork. When a golfer stands on the first tee it’s the player and his or her handicap against the competition. It is, in almost every respect, the ultimate individual game.

But I have learned some unexpected and useful lessons about teamwork which are applicable across the spectrum of activism.

Some backstory: I belong to a small golf club in a country town in SE NSW. We compete in the regional

Pennants competition against 15 other clubs. These are all the clubs in the ACT, plus those on the NSW Southern Tablelands and Southern Highlands and for non-golfers, I assure you, Pennants is a Big Deal. Our club is by far the smallest in the region, with only eight women available to play in the Pennants comp. By comparison, some of the other clubs have up to 80 women from which they can draw a team of five players for each of the home-and-away rounds and then the finals if they qualify.

Despite our size and the limitations of having such a small pool of players, we have won the Pennants competition, against some formidable opponents, for the last two years. It would be ridiculous to claim that we have the best individual golfers in the region. What we have, however, is a strong team.

Here’s the main takeaway points I’ve learnt about teamwork from playing golf and how these lessons can be applied to activist teamwork as a key to success.

1.     Know your team. It sounds like a no-brainer, but it goes beyond just knowing the names and faces of the people on your side. The eight members of our team all have different strengths and weaknesses. Some are good at the short game, some can drive long and straight, some can sink a putt from anywhere on the green. The important thing is that we all know each other’s strengths and when the captain is picking the five players for a Pennants match, she can tailor the team from the eight to suit the course and conditions.

2.     Know thine enemy. Your opponents might be big and powerful, but in many cases they will be relying on that to intimidate you. If you’re a community group up against a property developer, or a climate action group up against the fossil fuel industry, you know they have size and resources. Take your time and find out everything you can about your opponent then carefully target your resources for the biggest impact. Yes, David did beat Goliath, and Braidwood Golf Club did beat Royal Canberra. In neither case was it a fluke: it was knowing the weakness of the opponent.

3.     Be strategic. Golfers, like a lot of individual players both in sport and activism, live in their own heads. For teams to be successful, however, there needs to be a strategy of the whole and that comes down to team cohesion and groupthink. Agree in advance on what you're going to do and how, then do it. Be clear about the outcome you want – that’s your target.

4.     Give and take advice in the spirit of cooperation. There will always be someone in your team who is better at something than you. Likewise, you will be better at something than the others. Share your knowledge, skills and experience freely.

5.     Commit. If you're part of a team, it means you believe in the team's goal, and you believe it can be achieved. But getting there means every member of the team commits. You offer freely those skills that can help achieve the goal and know that you can rely on the commitment of your fellow team members if you need to step back a bit.At some point, everyone needs to take a step back.

6.     Celebrate the wins and, more importantly, the losses. If you’ve given it everything you had and still lost a match or a campaign, that’s not the time to crawl back into your respective caves and sulk. That’s the time to get together and celebrate what you did right. There’ll be time to plan the next campaign, but in the meantime, don’t let the bastards grind you down.

 


 

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