This Article has printed in Tejarat_e_Farda Magazine, Dated Nov, 3, 2023 in Persian:
https://www.tejaratefarda.com/fa/tiny/news-45829
Embrace Change
How To Think Like Sir Alex Ferguson?
Farideh Eskandari, Writer
Why do we need to change? What does “successful change” even mean, and how should we approach it? Many of us instinctively grow up believing that the best way to describe successful change is as a “straight path” where sufficient performance leads to a certain desired outcome. But that’s just a myth! Everyone loves and remembers inspiring beginnings and happy endings, but there’s a point in between that most of us fail to grasp. It’s at these moments that we experience Kanter’s Law: “Everything in between seems like failure.” Few people understand this rule. Sir Alex Ferguson, the former manager of Manchester United, is one of those people. He fought in this way for most of his career, embracing change and “changing” himself and the organization he managed to achieve success.
Professor Damien Hughes, an author, motivational speaker and “change management facilitator” who is also a Manchester United fan, has written a book inspired by Ferguson’s life and actions, in which he teaches us how to approach change in our lives, how to cope with it and how to change: “Ferguson was much more than a manager. He played a central role in the entire United organization, not just managing the first team, but the whole club. ‘Steve Jobs was Apple; Sir Alex Ferguson is Manchester United.’ This is a quote from former United chief executive David Gill, who believed that “a certain quality” had made him successful. Ferguson, in response to how he achieved such unparalleled success, says: “What I have managed to do very well over the years is manage change. When you accept change, you have controlled it. Most people are oblivious to change. But I always felt that I could not help but change.”
Hughes writes in the introduction to this great book named “How To Think Like Sir Alex Ferguson”, translated by Vahid Namazi and published by Divar Publishing as “Facing Change”: “My first aim is to understand how Sir Alex Ferguson has worked and how he has embraced change to stay at the forefront, in one of the most competitive industries in the world, where the failure rate is high (the average tenure of a manager in football is just one year and four months) and the forgiveness rate is very low (55% of those who have only had one coaching experience never do it again).
My second goal is to help you, using examples from Ferguson’s coaching career alongside a very wide range of non-football images and examples, identify some of your own struggles, challenges and successes from these pages and create a language from them to enhance your abilities. Imagine that this book in your hands will make you a copy of Sir Alex Ferguson and force you to help yourself manage the change process.”
Vahid Namazi, a computer engineering graduate, is a football journalist and researcher who, in addition to collaborating with sports media since 2005, also translates various books of sports literature. Football Madmen, The Secret Player, How Football Explains the World, Now It’s Time for Running (published by Cheshmeh), The Bad Boys of Football, Why Soccer Matters, Living on The Volcano, Football; The Philosophy Behind the Game (Goalgasht Publishing) are his translated works that are available in the book market. A special look at the sociology, management, and economics of football, along with research into the development of football in the world, are the most important points of his works.