The layout of the cycling events, the surface they travel on, the weather, the succession of stages, the devilish race dynamics or the actions of other teams create conditions for disruptive events to disturb them. Unexpected events occur that alter the teams’ tasks, such as the massive crash that disrupted Itzulia, compromising the season of three of the best teams in the world (Visma, Bora and Soudal) and the participation of their leaders (Vingegaard, Roglic and Evenepoel). on the next Tour. Therefore, the plan to avoid Pogacar’s falls in Liège a few weeks ago is not surprising, especially if we remember his wrist fracture last year.
The success of cycling teams depends on how they adapt to the disruptive events they will experience. When they occur, teams try to quickly understand their scope and re-plan their strategy, with different alternatives for action. This combination of understanding and coordination processes is also influenced by emotions. The anger or sadness induced by falls alters both the perception of the degree of disruption of the event and the team’s ability to coordinate in the face of its new demands. Teams adapt by understanding, coordinating and regulating themselves emotionally.
Is it possible to develop this adaptive capacity in cycling teams? The empirical evidence says yes, and suggests intervening at three levels: on the team members, on the team as a whole and on the external structure that supports the team in the race, the technical management.
Intervening on its members means changing the composition of the team. Incorporating people with high levels of flexibility and adaptability joint responses are facilitated. Also, having members with diverse experience and knowledge improves understanding of events and deciding what to do, how and why. Additionally, building our team with people who have been working together for a long time (particularly in different circumstances) makes them better able to pick up on early signs of disruption and anticipate the event. Composing an expert team, rather than a team of experts, allows for more knowledge to be shared about how to operate together, how to help each other, and how to readjust and coordinate actions to adapt.
We can also intervene on the whole with training strategies based on variation, which confront the team with changing and unexpected situations. The objective is to develop repertoires of actions that can be agilely combined to respond to disruptive events. These training strategies do not seek to instill ready-to-apply action protocols (which paradoxically turn out to be counterproductive), but rather to promote flexible learning to respond to events that we do not know how or when they will occur. Therefore, it is essential to provide teams with autonomy and the ability to self-manage to increase flexibility. Recent research on adaptive leadership shows how distributed leadership structures provide greater adaptability than centralized ones.
Finally, intervening on the structural support of the racing team implies, for example, working on its interaction with the technical direction. In this way, planning sessions would seek to empower the team in the face of the potential occurrence of disruptive events, instead of subordinating them or making them more dependent on management. Once again, studies on teams operating in risk contexts point to the importance of distributed leadership and decentralized management for their effectiveness. Additionally, creating a climate of psychological safety by critically reflecting and reviewing performance in a recent event will develop shared experience and knowledge, facilitating future adaptations.
The Giro begins and the participating teams will experience disruptive events, because they are part of their daily lives. Actions that prevent disruptions as dramatic as those seen at the beginning of the season will always be welcome. But we can also help teams by increasing their adaptability, considering their composition, their training as a team, their leadership structure and the support received from the organization in which they are inserted. Creating adaptive teams not only helps to manage the disruption of events with agility and be more effective, but also allows us to anticipate to minimize its worst consequences. Gaining adaptability protects teams and their members, maximizes their effectiveness and will benefit the sporting spectacle.
Ramón Rico is a doctor and professor of Business Organization at the Carlos III University of Madrid
You can follow The USA Print in Facebook and xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
_
