Putting the Collaborative Style of a Successful Football Team in a Lean Construction Context

The Norwegian football club Rosenborg BK (RBK) was a well-recognized force in European club football during its heyday in the 1990s. Led by the legendary coach Nils Arne Eggen, they regularly shocked Europe’s top teams with great results after implementing a successful philosophy based on collaboration. The importance of collaboration is well-emphasized in Lean Construction (LC) theory, but more discussion about creating a willingness and culture for collaboration seems to be lacking. Therefore, this conceptual paper suggests broadening the existing theory by presenting Nils Arne Eggen’s “Best Foot theory” principles through a new theoretical lens. The collaborative “Best Foot theory” is seen in an LC context and discussed with the “Five Big Ideas” presented by Lean Project Consulting, Inc. as the starting point. The “Best Foot theory” expands current theory by giving successful practical examples to create a culture for the practitioners in a performance group to want to collaborate