Deficient Culture Around Mistakes

Trust - Courage & Agility!

In German industry, especially in connection with digitalization, people have by now recognized that our culture around mistakes is hostile to innovation and development. Modern, well-run companies therefore make a point of establishing a culture in which mistakes are seen first and foremost as an opportunity for improvement. The school system, too, is looking for new ways to stop branding mistakes as failure.

In German football, and regrettably also in how our talents are used at Bundesliga clubs, our old way of thinking still dominates and has a particularly negative effect.

That's what prompted our U21 national coach, Antonio Di Salvo, to give an interview with an “alarming character” in early 2022!

Of course, top clubs can't afford to experiment in national and international competitions, since a great deal of money is at stake, and with it a better position for the following seasons.

At the Rhineland Bundesliga summit, however, the people in charge at 1. FC Köln, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and Fortuna Düsseldorf even asked for more playing time for young players in the Bundesliga. Gladbach's sporting director, Roland Virkus, essentially repeated this demand today on the football talk show Doppelpass on the private broadcaster SPORT1, when he defended the use of Luca Netz (20), who sometimes didn't cut a good figure in the match against FC Augsburg.

Now, one could argue that Gladbach's circumstances force it to build young, promising players into the squad, but in principle, opportunities to keep bringing young players into the professional squad arise for all teams — and here I deliberately mean the teams of clubs with a DFB elite academy. After all, every career has to start somewhere. And a “good” culture around mistakes, one that a head coach at a club also applies and lives by, opens up opportunities.

It's not enough to simply demand greater efficiency from an academy, as Mr. Hainer did, for example, and to invest money, while mistakes and failure are simultaneously punished in public. As part of an authentic club leadership, a head coach can build trust and bring more courage to the selection of young players.

With the 2024/25 season, the DFB is taking new paths to become a benchmark again when it comes to talent development. Last week I already wrote about this for the U11 age group in my article, “New DFB Youth Development Concept Really Absurd?” But major changes are also coming for the older youth age groups. The Junior Bundesliga will then be replaced by the Nachwuchsliga (youth league). Not only will the name change, but so will the competition format. Essentially, there will no longer be promotion and relegation, and yet an exciting competitive character will be preserved. This will allow clubs to focus on developing young players rather than acting primarily results-oriented. The DFB sets out in its FAQ what changes await the A and B juniors.

Back in September 2019, the people behind it launched “Projekt Zukunft” (Project Future) and, in that context, also changed coach education and pushed digitalization forward. Almost five years then passed before the Nachwuchsliga was introduced!

In the U11 age group, the concept for “play afternoons and festivals” using FUNiño, developed by Horst Wein, was already in place back in 2012 — as my friend and loyal reader Alfred Stöhr pointed out in connection with my last article — 12 YEARS until implementation.

So it's especially true for the DFB as well: it needs to establish a different culture around mistakes and become significantly quicker to act. We urgently need more agility!

In the same breath, and already now, clubs are called upon to rethink their culture! Here I especially want to urge clubs' leadership bodies to act authentically! Board members, managing directors, supervisory board members, sporting directors, academy directors, and all club representatives should lead the way as role models!

And then it's about patiently building trust. You don't change a culture within days. Trust can be lost quickly, but it grows very slowly!

I look forward to addressing another topic in talent development with you next week under my column “So schaut's aus.” Until then! Stay healthy, and always a good ball!