Yesterday's Scrambled Eggs

“Scrambled eggs.

Oh my baby how I love your legs”

So went the initial lyrics to one of the most covered songs of all time – Paul McCartney’s Yesterday. Go on – sing those lyrics to the tune of the song. They fit perfectly.

This was part of Lennon and McCartney’s process – inventing a substitute working lyric to help them finalise the melody and chords before replacing it with the final lyric.

And as a songwriter and musician, I find that fascinating. Little glimpses into the process of these two master songwriters intrigue me.

What can I learn from it?

What part of their songwriting process might benefit mine?

Because everything that exists started with nothing. The songs we sing, the buildings we inhabit, the teams we support, the cars we drive. And so those who created these things must have had a process in order to move their ideas from beginning to completion.

Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel are two of the best managers in world football. They met a few years ago in a bar in Munich and exchanged ideas on the game. What football coach the world over wouldn’t have paid good money to sit surreptitiously at the next table, listening in to these two masters share their thoughts with each other?

Or for any Gaelic Football fans out there, picture yourself sitting next to Jim Gavin and Jim McGuinness in a restaurant as they discussed honestly and openly how they created two of the great recent GAA teams and cultures.

But we all know the chances of those two men sitting down and having that type of conversation is unlikely. Many of us don’t share our process because we don’t want to help our competitors. Guardiola and Tuchel met in 2014, long before they became rivals.

But as a creator or leader, sharing your process is one of the more generous and worthwhile things you can do. It not only helps the person with whom you’re sharing, but it helps you, the sharer too.

Do you remember maths class in school? Where your final mark wasn’t just based on the answer you got, but also on the process you used to reach that answer. You shared your process with the examiner so that they could evaluate properly how well you understood the topic at hand.

And the thing about maths is that there is always a right answer. But for many of us, the things we are creating aren’t right or wrong, just better or worse. And so for us to improve it’s even more important to learn from the processes of others. Not to copy them piece for piece, but to take the parts which could help and make them our own.

We get by with a little help from our friends.

Chasing glory in Geevagh

I attended my first away underage football game in years last weekend.

Coolera-Strandhill U-10 girls v Geevagh. In Geevagh.

And if I’m honest, I don’t know too much about Geevagh. I chased after Kevin Byrne for the day in a club game there years ago. Former county teammates include Darren Kearns of course, who has one of the best strikes of a ball I ever saw, and Kenny (Haj) Sweeney who scored a crucial point in the second half in the 2007 Connacht final.

Saxophonist Cathal Roche lives out that direction too, and I also paid a very enjoyable visit to St. Patrick’s National School on a tour of primary schools I did one year. I got a great welcome from Sheena Hallissy and the gentle giant John Hughes there among others, and the children had some great questions for me on both music and football.

But back to the match. Firstly it was great to see the new pitch (possibly not that new any more but certainly my first time to see it). A great surface and while I didn’t measure it, it looked to me like one of the bigger GAA pitches in the county. Looking at it wondering how did I ever get up and down pitches like this.

As I said above I’m new to this, and what I’m about to point out will not be news to regulars on the circuit. However my children are interested now and I’m getting a great kick, as many parents do, from seeing them enjoy the games, the training and the fun. 

But the differences from when I played underage are marked. We’re talking the late 80s/early 90s here, so I probably should have expected some change, but it was great to see the strides that have been made.

Firstly the fact that there are girls U-10 games at all. 30 years ago it was basically unheard of for girls and even adult ladies to play any sort of football. And now our club has 21 players looking to play a 10-a-side game.

I learned that there were no scores kept until U-12 level. It reminded me of articles I read about La Masia, the underage football academy in Barcelona which produced the golden generation of Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Puyol, Fabregas and others. Focus not on winning, but on the development of players. And this tallied very much with the message given out by coaches on both sides.

And then there was the directive given to parents on the sideline before the game not to criticise players on either side. Encouragement only.

And so the atmosphere in Geevagh that morning was pleasant and girls and parents alike enjoyed the experience.

I’m sure it’s not all rosy. A quick chat with some more seasoned parents revealed one or two unsavoury incidents at some some recent underage games, However cultural change in a large organisation like the GAA is difficult, so attempts to do so in a positive way deserve credit.