RSA Group Reflections September 2026
Dear friends,
No matter how white and pristine a laundry load may be, one red sock will ruin it all. This is a fundamental rule of life. Everyone who has todeal with laundry understands it, and operates accordingly.
The same principle applies to discipline in a team, and within organisations. A legal team, for example, can’t afford to lose its discipline, ever. A single factual inaccuracy can ruin an entire case, regardless of the integrity and quality of the surrounding work. Again, this is a hard rule of the profession that cannot be ignored.
I came across this ‘red sock analogy’ recently at a legally-focused event. Its basic truth really struck a chord, and can, I believe, be applied to most organisations and modes of business, including ours.
It’s very easy in our industry to focus our discipline and intent on elements that deliver immediate rewards and results, in areas we really want to see rewards and results. Sales, obviously. Establishing new producer relationships. Securing new listings. Winning awards from producers, or industry.
But there are many other parts of what we do that also require discipline, focus and intent. Being punctual for meetings. Delivering on all the commitments agreed on in meetings and discussions. Communicating clearly and timeously with colleagues and business partners. The list goes on… When we lose our focus in these areas, we’re effectively thoughtlessly chucking a red sock into the mix. In doing this, we risk creating a messy tangle that impacts everyone we work with, and the quality of our overall company performance.
No one, no matter what position they hold, or where they work in the business, is immune. Keeping up discipline in big and small areas has certainly been a big challenge for me, and pretty much everyone I have worked with, through the years. And the challenge only seems to grow and expand as our business grows and expands. It can be exhausting, to say the least, to stay on point when it comes to all the little things that often seem to stand in the way of the big flashy objectives you have set your sights on for the week, month or year. But just because discipline is a many headed monster, that doesn’t mean we can afford to turn our heads away from it. Really, we have no choice but to face it, and to work as hard as we can at getting the little things right, again and again.
One of the ways to think about how to do this is to approach the challenge as a group. If each team sets aside time and space to firstly list all the ‘little’ things that are not being addressed within the team, and, following on from that, to decide who will action them, and by when, well… that’s a great way to create and maintain individual responsibility, and accountability.
I realise this can feel like a less than urgent undertaking, but that’s precisely the point, isn’t it? We have to pay attention to dealing with those red socks at some stage if we want to avoid having to waste time, effort and company resources further down the track.
This is a simple principle, but it really matters – especially from the perspective of the effective functioning of RSA Group, which is made up of many distinct but significantly interlocked parts. If we focus more on our basic ‘red sock discipline’ we will slash our error rates and do better, more productive business. And that’s a goal that’s worth reaching for.
Best wishes
Jaco Oosthuizen
