Implementing philosophy and effective culture inform organization success. Bill Walsh's "The Score Takes Care of Itself" illustrates best of breed installation and maintenance of culture.
Today, I focus on establishing, growing, and protecting culture. Does it matter that I oversee basketball fora small group of young players and their extended families? While it's easier to shepherd a small group, that doesn't devalue the process. Communication, mutual respect, and fairness give success a chance.
Establishing culture.
Coaches (leaders) need to clarify and specify core cultural dimensions. For our youngest group, those include TEAMWORK, IMPROVEMENT, and ACCOUNTABILITY.
TEAMWORK starts from Phil Jackson's mantra, "basketball is sharing." TEAM players excel at game understanding ("eighty percent of the game is mental") and making TEAMMATES better. There's an old story of a selfish player learning team play. His coach placed him out of bounds with the ball and called his teammates off the floor. "Now play." The message radiated to both player and TEAM. The paradox of basketball is the centrality of individual improvement within a mandate for a group experience.
IMPROVEMENT. Kevin Eastman explains, "you are responsible for your paycheck." You define contribution to organizational value. Are you a specialty player or a well-rounded one? Do you have big 'holes' in your game? Whom can you guard? If the answers are evident to everyone (including you), what is your process to expand your game, to leave your comfort zone, and to become more? Do you buy-in to an effective process or are you the wrong person on the bus?
ACCOUNTABILITY. Everyone is accountable to someone. I insist that players are accountable to the team. We have an open agreement that repeated mental or physical mistakes require substitution. That's the extension of Eastman's "do it better, do it harder, change personnel, or change strategy" when "it ain't working." Practice and meetings with players are transparent; I send parents communications about players strengths and need areas. Players receive practice schedules in advance.
Growing culture.
Growing culture implies teaching and learning. What is not learned has not been taught. This blog serves one educational component as do player notebooks and information taught at practice. None independently yield necessary growth tools. Growth requires "performance-focused" feedback. Whether players succeed or fail, they need to understand why and how to repeat or improve decision-making and execution in the moment. In a summer league game, a player set a beautiful 'drag screen' leading to a transition layup. Everyone needs to know the unselfish screener drove the result just as much as the scorer. When players are unhappy, they should approach coaches and ask what they can do to grow their role.
Protecting culture.
Leaders need to oversee culture at all times to prevent ego, selfishness, hearing the wrong voices, immaturity, jealousy, and "the disease of ME." But leadership seen as aloof, indifferent, self-absorbed, and at worst vindictive guarantees that players (team members) tune out or drop out. "People don't quit jobs; they quit people" is David Cottrell's message in "Monday Morning Leadership." With younger players, especially girls, conversations happen individually with another adult (ideally her parent but sometimes another coach) present.
Reward TEAMWORK and WORK ETHIC. At the end of the season, the players voted on the "Teammate Award," their choice for the player the felt best exemplified being a good teammate. At the end of the summer workouts, I awarded a book prize for maximum participation (Study is Hard Work by William Armstrong).
Culture and character define the process that drives results. Teams with strong cultures work at refreshing and protecting their environment.
