Hockey is generally considered THE Canadian sport, where our national teams often win the biggest tournaments, on both the men’s and the women’s side. But there is another winter sport where our Canadian teams win the gold medal even more often than our hockey players do.
Thanks to the title of this blog, you’ve no doubt guessed that I’m talking about curling. This sport has intrigued me for some forty years and, since my whole family is very involved in it right now, I keep following it closely.
My two kids play on the provincial juvenile circuit, and my wife coaches my daughter’s team, so every winter I attend several bonspiels (tournaments). And when there’s curling on TV, you can be sure that at least one of our TVs is tuned to TSN to watch the games.
You may be starting to wonder what curling could have to do with communication, and even more so with family communication. Please stay with me, I’m getting there.
If you’re already a curling fan, you know that communication among the four members of a team is very important. Each player throws two stones per end, while two of their teammates sweep (or don’t) in front of the stone, and the captain (the “skip”) waits in the house and shouts out instructions.
That’s what you can see when you watch any curling game, from a recreational team at a club on a Tuesday night, to the juveniles on the circuit, and even at the world championship.
In any family business, there is also basic communication, but instead of the skip shouting out instructions, it’s probably the father telling everyone what to do. This happens in almost every family, from those who have a simple little restaurant, to those who have hundreds of employees and are in the second or third generation, and even in dynastic families.
But now let’s start looking at the nuances a bit. The team that plays in a weekly league, just for fun, doesn’t communicate much more than it has to, and it’s often the skip who has the most experience, and he’s the one who sends out most of the instructions to the others.
A small family business will probably act in a similar way. No more discussion than necessary, and the boss is the one in charge.
But it’s when you watch curling championships on television that you see that curling really is a team sport. Yes, what you hear most is the skip shouting loudly when he wants the sweepers to work harder, or else the shot would be missed.
But curling became the best sport on TV when they put microphones on the players, which gives fans the chance to listen to all the discussions among team members.
Imagine if we could see and listen to the Rockefellers, the Desmarais, the Irvings, and the Molsons when they communicate about the decisions surrounding their families and their companies. That would be really interesting.
As far as curling goes, I can tell you unequivocally that the best teams at the highest levels are successful largely because of the way they make their decisions and how they communicate with each other during games.
These teams have understood that they will win or lose as a team, and that no single person has a monopoly on decisions, and especially on the information that needs to be exchanged among teammates while the stone is in motion.
I watch my kids play and I’m proud to say that they make big efforts to keep communicating better on the ice, and they improve with every game.
Could your enterprising family learn something about the importance of communication by watching curling?
Maybe so.
