Appealing to the better angels

A big part of my job is motivating sales/marketing teams; getting everyone to do the right thing for the right reason. Getting a large population to do anything in unison is challenging but the starting point is always cohesive self-image. We have to see ourselves as part of the group before we can develop group values.

In the last few weeks I've been lucky enough to get along to two big international sporting fixtures; England v. France in Six Nations rugby at Twickenham then Chelsea v. Copenhagen in Champions League football at Stamford Bridge. At both occasions the crowd was asked to stand in silence to honour the victims of two horrific earthquakes (Christchurch and Japan respectively).

Getting a crowd to stand in silence is a really interesting challenge; it can only work if absolutely everyone participates. The many are held hostage by the few.

At Twickenham 80,000 people were so quiet, so still, that I could hear traffic noise outside the ground. It lasted two whole minutes and made the hair stand up on the back of your neck.  At no time did Stamford Bridge manage complete silence, even for a few seconds. A few people in the South Stand kept talking and were shushed by others nearby.  They reacted by talking louder. More shushing. Louder talking and so on until some presumably well-meaning soul from the other end of the ground screamed: -

"Shut up you c***ts!"

At which the referee decided enough was enough and blew his whistle to end the ordeal.

Much has been written about the contrasting ethos of football and rugby and here it was writ large. Twickenham had many French supporters just as lots of Danes were at the football so I don't think the differing behaviours can be attributed to a misunderstanding of language.  Rather it seemed to me that the rugby crowd wanted to behave well whereas the football crowd didn't care so much.  Rugby celebrates universalism, football cherishes tribalism so perhaps it will always be easier to appeal to the better angels of a crowd watching rugby than football.

There's no point in trying to influence group behaviour if no self-reflexive sense of the group exists in the first place.