Earlier this week, I sat down with Dr. Hamilton Pharaoh to speak about how to create creative spaces for Excellence. It turned into a stroll through his lived experience as a university lecturer, an NPO founder and Strategic Director of a rugby club. Here is how all these dots connect.
Sabine Breit (SB): Good afternoon Hamilton. Howzit? What’s keeping you busy currently?
Hamilton Pharaoh (HP) I’m good, Sabine. I’m trying not to be busy, but it sort of catches up with me. So, at the moment, obviously, I am busy at the university, where I am looking at how our health related research can become interdisciplinary, so that we can create a research platform across faculties. Basically, it is about staff and the students building the capacity to work in that way. The idea is to create an environment for everyone who is interested to come and share, which would allow students from various faculties and departments to work together and gain an understanding of how to operate collectively.
SB: So you are basically creating an environment where people feel encouraged and safe to make a contribution. Are there any factors or qualities that you find particularly important in that context?
HP: Actually, it’s very simple. All we need is to be receptive. There’s an Afrikaans word: “Ontvanklik”. We need to be receptive to each other.
SB: “Empfangsbereit” or “Aufmerksam” could be a German word.
HP: Sounds like it. So, that’s the first thing. As a community we are still sort of divided into all kinds of clusters. You know, the guys with a Phd are the clever ones, so we can’t really teach them anything. Or it should only be certain ranks around the table. Things like this. Whatever cluster we have created, it makes all of us less receptive to the skills and the knowledge of others. In the last analysis, we are all here to learn. So, although I am a Phd holder myself, I go into these environments as a lifelong student. I have no doubt that I am going to learn from anyone I engage with.
As soon as people can feel that they are received and that what they have to share is valued, they start opening up and express their lived experience and the knowledge that they bring with them. Then things start getting easier, because there is less fear and more trust.
SB: Creating a space where people can experience their worth is also what you do with your foundation. I’ve known you for a while now, and I know that something that keeps you always busy is your foundation. What’s going on there?
HP: Yeah, look, for the foundation, we are slowly building to where we need to be regarding the grade 9 programs. Within the next months, we will hopefully start piloting that in two new schools in one of the towns at the West Coast, so that over the next 4 to 5 years, we can help learners understand what they are passionate about, what talents they have, and how they can use that to pursue a different future. You know, a school is basically a place where you are directed in one way. But within that direction, the question is, what is your direction within that as an individual. For us, this means: how do we get to ignite the fire that is inside of them and help them to navigate through this system at the same time? We know it will take a lot of work and patience, but we are excited to take on that challenge.
SB: Talking about fire, Hamilton. How is the rugby going?
HP: Laughs You know, I’ve got a very fancy position now. It’s called Director of Strategic Management. I’m still trying to figure out what that means. But it sounds really fancy. I’m quite chuffed with that, because when people ask you what you do, I can say, well, that’s my job. And then, I think, they don’t ask anything else because they are too scared to ask.
Seriously, for me, it means that I am allowed by the club to live out my passion to impact those in the club. Firstly, it’s about understanding strategically where the club wants to go. Then, it’s about creating an environment where everyone in the club starts speaking the same language. And from there, also creating a safe place where we can be authentic with each other.
I am fortunate that with all my Rugby knowledge and expertise gathered in the last 30 years, I actually now get a chance to live it out and share it. That part is absolutely incredible. Looking back at my career, I now realize that I’ve gone through all the experiences so that I can now use it in the greater scheme of where communities want to go.
In that job, I connect with the executive, i.e. the management of the club. I connect with the coaches and the development of the players. I connect with the players and the medical team, and I connect with the spectators and the entire community. So basically, with my rugby knowledge, my community building experience and my medical knowledge, I’m sitting in the middle and am connecting all of these things. Hopefully, one day we will also be able to have workshops where players and the families can come. That, to me, is exciting. Somehow, all the dots seem to connect.
SB: Between the two of us, we always speak about individual and collective communication reservoirs that come together in communication interfaces between people. It looks as if your individual reservoir has become so big that you can understand the individual reservoirs from everybody and help to create a new shared one for the club and the community as a whole. To create ever increasing circles of receptiveness, so to say.
HP: Absolutely, and it might be too simple to explain it in this way, but it’s almost like if I have 4 people together, and they use different words. Then I’m able to understand that those 4 different words mean the same thing. Then we can create a joint understanding together. It’s about clarification.
You must never forget that everyone in the club comes in with their different things. Understanding that is challenging. When we look at nutrition, for example, the food that we give someone to eat after practice might be a person’s only meal for that day. Or coming to practice might be that person’s safe space that he comes to, to get away from things. So, when we create an environment that’s full of fighting, that person doesn’t have a safe place anymore. Sometimes, people come from a difficult environment which makes it difficult to be receptive.
One must also understand that the club has different meanings for different people. Where it all comes together is the love for the club. When you boil it down to this, it’s also about making sure that people understand that using the club to pamper their ego or to gain power from it has nothing to do with love.
That’s part of the challenge and requires constant work. It also requires constant communication to avoid and clarify misunderstandings, to listen what is really needed and to make sure it happens eventually, so that people know that they have been heard.
And finally, it’s about understanding the facts and structure, because this is what you can work on. If I say to one of the players: “You are a poor player”, then how can you make that better? You’ve already been told you are poor. Or if I say: “I don’t like you” – how can you change that? But if I say “You cannot pass the ball through the lift” or “You must practice your kicking”, that’s something a player can work on.
SB: So you have a starting point for conversation?
HP: Exactly! And that just makes such a difference for everyone working within a system. Whether it’s a team, or a corporate business, it doesn’t matter. And we can see the difference that it makes. In a sense, they look at things differently now. It’s almost like they understand what they are working on. And they understand that they can ask questions, give input and ask for things to be explained again. It makes a major difference. If you don’t communicate properly with a team of rugby players, and they get the feeling that they are failing all the time, they become less confident.
Sabine Breit: If they become less confident, then ultimately the performance on the pitch will suffer, right?
HP: Absolutely!
SB: How does all of this play out on match day?
HP: When it comes to match day, preparation for this starts early. Basically after the last match. There are specific things that need to happen until the following Saturday. On match days, it’s also a well-planned structure, from when players wake up and need to prepare themselves as individuals, to when they get together as a team, to the point where they run onto the field. Each specific group has certain tasks. Like the coaches will have certain things that they build on, etc.
SB: Is there anything like a rallying cry or a message that you always send them out with?
HP: Look, I always ask them whether they are enjoying themselves. Even during practice. I say to them: “If a practice is not enjoyable, then you shouldn’t be here. Then you must tell us.” Why? Because we are also doing this – and it is actually the most important part – for the enjoyment. Even when you have a tough game, even when you might lose the game, there can be something that makes you say: “Wow! I enjoyed this. I enjoyed the struggle, the difficulty. I don’t enjoy the feeling of losing, but it builds me.”
So that when you start winning, you understand the privilege of winning. Otherwise, you become entitled and think winning is just something that happens.
Actually, I never talk about winning a game. I speak about the things that we need to do. Because if we do the things properly, if we action it, if the guys live out to their potential and talent, the outcome will be good.
SB: And how has the outcome been so far, since you have become the Strategic Master of Disaster?
HP: Yeah. I don’t know if I can brag about it. We are on a 5 game winning streak after the team had been on a 5 game losing streak. So, there might be something happening. There might be some method in my madness. Or it might be that the guys are just brilliant, and I’m only a bystander.
The most important thing for me is, though, that I am enjoying what I’m doing. Every Tuesday, when I drive down to the West Coast in the late afternoon to be at the practice, I ask myself when I get into the car: “Am I enjoying myself?” If the answer is not yes, I will not go.
(c) Sabine Breit