kokoroZendo

Dutching Synergy Tiki Taka way…..

I started drafting this post in my mind, while watching the Holland – Uruguay world cup match. During the last phase, Dutch star Arjen Robben was substituted and the camaraderie shown by the Holland bench was quite striking, especially if you are aware of their history. Holland as a nation, regardless of its small size and population, always produced a great bunch of soccer players. During the 70s and 90s. I do remember their 90s lineup. Gullit, Rijkard, Vanbasten, Bergkamp, De Boer brothers etc. They had world at their feet, except for a couple of bad elements in their team who always ensured they did not click as a team. During one of the group matches of the current world cup, when Van Persie was substituted , he had a few words of advice to the coach in front of millions of eyes. . A Commentator who lip read Van Persie, had said, he was abusing his own team mate Snyder. And I thought the history was repeating itself. The Dutch way. But for once, the coach was wise. He took the initiative of bringing the conflict out in open and the players spoke to each other. And Dutch ended up in final for a change.

Maybe a coincidence. Next day I had to attend a training program on Synergy conducted by an esteemed colleague of mine as an observer. Quite remarkably he started with a question, what has made Dhoni’s Indian cricket team such a success? The answer was obvious. Synergy.

I thought even the word was quite self explanatory. Synergy = Synchronized Energy. Synchronized literally means Harmonized. As in a laser beam. Laser beam is nothing but coherent light. Of course the coherence is enforced by an external source of energy and process. It is not an intrinsic quality of light.

That night Spain had passed Germany out of the park by the Tiki Taka way. Tiki Taka means the style of football played by FC Barcelona and the current Spain World cup foot ball team. It is a short passing game, where everyone in the team participates and weaves the magic around the rival team. It is quite usual , they conjure a sequence of 25 + passes before putting the ball behind net. It takes sublime skills and innate understanding of others in the team to play the tiki taka way. Incidentally this way of playing was said to be the brainchild of Joan Cryuff, the greatest Dutch footballer. Probably he realized t he Dutch may not adopt his style and he took it to Barcelona. No wonder, 7 players who plays for Barcelona. That too in a starting lineup.

“Facilitrainer “ in the Synergy training session, told us that the crux of having synergy is not to know How to do that.. But having a strong reason for “Why” to do that!

As an old saying goes, “If you have good enough Why, one will do it anyhow”. It is the Common answer to the question “Why” which sublimate individual egos and forges synergy.

In another 30 minutes Final game starts.

Joan Cryuff, the Dutch great has predicted a Spanish win.

I am also pitching for La Roja.

The Dutch can wait till they learn to play the Tiki Taka way.