The 2026 World Cup will be the biggest in history.
For the first time, 48 teams will compete, expanding the tournament from its previous format of 32 nations. Accommodating that growth has required a bigger stage than ever before. The result is a World Cup spread across three host nations: Canada, Mexico and the United States.
On one level, it’s a sporting spectacle but on another, it’s a fascinating exercise in organisational design.
Because whilst the football will be played across Canada, Mexico and the United States, the tournament itself has a much harder task. It needs to feel like one event.
Anyone who has ever tried to bring together different teams, departments or organisations will recognise the challenge immediately.
Creating consistency is easy when everyone is in the same building. Creating it across different cultures, systems and ways of working is something else entirely.
The illusion of alignment
Many organisations assume that because everyone shares the same objective, they are automatically aligned.
But alignment isn’t created by a shared goal – it’s created by a shared understanding of how that goal comes to life.
Every World Cup host city will have its own character, its own traditions, and its own way of doing things. That’s part of the attraction. But somewhere within all that variety, visitors still need to feel they’re attending the same tournament.
The same challenge exists inside organisations: a strategy can be communicated perfectly from the centre. Yet by the time it reaches different teams, regions or functions, it can look and feel completely different. Not because anyone is doing anything wrong – but because people naturally interpret ideas through the lens of their own environment.
The tension between consistency and individuality
The temptation in situations like this is to standardise everything. To create tighter rules, more controls, and more guidance. But complete consistency often comes at the expense of what makes people, teams and places distinctive.
The best leaders understand that cohesion and uniformity are not the same thing. A successful World Cup won’t require every city to feel identical – but it will require every city to feel connected.
And the same principle applies to organisations: people don’t need to work in exactly the same way, but they do need to understand the bigger story they are contributing to.
Culture travels through stories
Logistics matter, processes matter, and structures matter. But when organisations try to create cohesion at scale, culture becomes the deciding factor. And culture travels through stories and stories explain what matters. They help people make decisions when no rule exists and they create a sense of belonging across distance.
The most successful global organisations are the ones whose people can answer a simple question: “What are we trying to achieve together?”
The World Cup faces the same test.
Beyond football
Long after the final whistle, the lasting lesson may have little to do with football. It will be about what happens whenever separate groups attempt to create a shared experience.
Whether it’s a merger, a transformation programme, a national initiative or the world’s largest sporting event, success depends on more than coordination. It depends on connection.
Download a copy of the World Cup fixture chart here to get a sense of the coordination required to turn three countries into one event.
