The NeuroTeam.
Purpose: Information collection & learning.
The NeuroTeam is a crucial part of your Super Club, it is essentially your scouting/intelligence network. Taking in information from the environment, processing it and then attempting to make improvements or at least maintain your current position (homeostasis).
Its primary role is first of all to ensure survival, by recognising dangers and identifying weaknesses.
For example, your body’s fight or flight response or acute stress reaction, is controlled by your autonomic (sympathetic) nervous system and sets off the alarm bells to alert other departments at the club (hormones, immune system) that they need to take urgent action.
And, if you have ever read the comic strip called the: “Numbskulls” in the Beano, or, more latterly seen the film: “Inside Out,” you will be familiar with the idea that we have a workforce inside our brains, making the decisions and pulling the levers that generate our thoughts and actions.
It may be overly simplistic, but, at least it helps you to understand the interconnect between the mind and body, which is vital for health. If you overwork these employees, by continually stressing them out and not allowing them time off to rest and recover, then eventually they will tire and start making mistakes, which is often when your health becomes compromised.
As well as exhaustion, you also risk exasperation, because when you’re working your socks off trying to do a good job and then find out you are not really needed, as the threat is only a perception, the depressing reality you’re wasting your time begins to sink in, and both moral and performance suffer.
The other side of the coin is, if you can break free from this chronic stress there is a huge potential for growth and development at the club, and instead of participating in a relegation dogfight you can actually look forward to promotion.
For example, when you engage in learning, thinking and memorising activities, the NeuroTeam is constantly adapting and making new connections in a process called Neuroplasticity.
This process can continue from kick off to injury time, from learning to walk as a toddler to learning to walk again after a stroke.
One of the most successful treatments for mild forms of depression is a form of therapy called; cognitive behavioural therapy or CBT for short. Which seeks to change the way people think about problems, by replacing errors in thinking caused by making generalisations, exaggerating negatives and catastrophizing results, with more realistic and effective thoughts.
You know the type of thoughts I mean, thinking that because the team has played badly and lost they are certainties for relegation (catastrophizing), or the type of thinking that just remembers the negative mistakes made in a game and not the positive moves (exaggerating negatives).
Depression itself, can essentially be viewed as merely a way of thinking or a strategy, albeit a losing strategy, in the game of life.
What distinguishes people who get depressed from those who don’t?
Well, we all feel down in the dumps from time to time and have negative thoughts, however, for people who suffer from depression, these thoughts can actually become persistent and automatic, producing thoughts of hopelessness and despair.
In essence, the “Numbskull” players are running aimlessly up and down the pitch, going over the same ground and leaving deep stud marks in the field of play. Making it more difficult to play effectively and produce positive results.
As Club Manager, you have to ensure these players are stopped in their tracks and a new playing field is rolled out, so the rough patches don’t adversely affect the flow of the game.
Your scouts have to actively seek out new players, with a more positive outlook on life, and get everyone singing from the same hymn sheet again and playing with purpose.
Goal Scored: Lifelong learning.⚽⚽⚽
NeuroTeam training and tactics