Think about successful teams you've watched, coached, played on, and studied. Specific dimensions are common among them - commitment, culture, tempo, and intelligence. What comprises "Championship DNA"?
Celebrate the success literature. Success demands learning. Jon Gordon and Mike Smith wrote You Win in the Locker Room First. Here are a couple of quotes:
“Culture drives expectations and beliefs. Expectations and beliefs drive behaviors. Behaviors drive habits and habits create the future.” –Jon Gordon
“Leadership is a transfer of belief.” –Jon Gordon
“If you are complaining, you are not leading. If you are leading, you are not complaining.” –Mike Smith
“To build a winning team, you want to be consistent in your attitude, effort, and actions.” –Jon Gordon
“One of the keys to listening and communicating is to ask the right people the right questions.” –Mike Smith
Create a culture of competitiveness. UNC soccer coach Anson Dorrance calls it the "competitive cauldron". As college baseball players at Harvard, pitchers had the annual "mile", where each had to run one mile sub 6:30 on an elevated, banked indoor track (eighteen laps). It became highly competitive...even considering that nobody had a "track" body build. To win, you generally had to run close to 5:00...
"Steal great ideas." Spurs' Shooting Groups. We have four baskets. Have four groups of three, with two balls each group (shooter, passer, rebounder). We shoot both corners, elbows, and finally free throw line shots. The priorities include shot preparation, improving release. Over about five minutes (five spots)...each player has to make five. In those five minutes, each player gets about fifty shots...and each group signals when they've 'won'.
"It's not okay." There's a saying, "if you practice like hamburger, you play like hamburger. If you practice like steak, you become steak." I don't want players reinforcing mistakes, telling each other "that's okay" after a bad pass, fumble, or travel. Mutual accountability to a superior standard must become the default standard. "It's not okay" to make careless errors on the court or in the classroom.
"Don't cheat the drill." Steve Nash was famous not only as a great point guard, but for winning EVERY sprint at practice. When your preparation and effort are mediocre, you cheat the team, your teammates, and yourself. Outstanding teams have outstanding habits.
"Share values." Examine the elite programs and their values. For UCLA's John Wooden it was the "Pyramid of Success", Phil Jackson preached "basketball is sharing", Nick Saban has "The Process", and Urban Meyer sells "Above the Line" behavior. Our programs need unifying beliefs, especially concerning the primacy of the team over the individual.
If you value being 'special', then model special daily.
