READ THIS NOW: Good Ideas Are Sticky (Basketball and Life)

Get it right by writing. Steve Kerr began his coaching manifesto long before ascending to the Warriors. The rest is history. 

Great ideas surround us. Sites like Farnham Street blog, Medium, and WhatDoesn’tChange create springboards. As we absorb worldly understanding, apply and share with our community. 

Leaders become learning machines. Fools celebrate ignorance. Halftime might mean water and orange slices to players, but for coaches it means analysis, problem solving, teaching, motivation, and more. Lee's victory at Chancellorsville in May 1863 informs the classic underdog victory. Suvorov evolved from sickly child to the undefeated general. 

Lason Perkins shared some mental models with me, including an expansive '80-20' Rule treatise that many know as the Pareto Principle. Mental Models are 'big picture' ideas that increase productivity or understanding of how the world works. 

The course emphasizes headlines as grabbing attention:

"A concrete example of how I’ve applied it to my business regards article writing. I very quickly realized, after talking to different experts and studying top authors, that headlines are the 20 percent of effort that produces 80 percent of reader views. The main way that readers find an article is through social media. The first thing they see is the headline, the cover image, and the subtitle. By focusing on creating great headlines, we probably gained 20x the amount of readers—a huge gain."

In James Patterson's MasterClass, he emphasizes the importance of the first sentence and the first paragraph of his novels. 

How can we apply the 80-20 Rule? 

In our coaching, what is the Main Thing? I'll argue that we succeed or fail depending upon our relationships...with players, families, other coaches, and administrators. We cultivate those relationships by listening, by communicating, and through our integrity, energy, and positivity. 

Those relationships are 'root' or character inputs, illustrated in Stephen M.R. Covey's The Speed of Trust (above). Communication informs player and team development and technical competence (strategic detail). Poor communication and failed relationships guarantee problems when developing roles, teaching, and motivating cohesion. 

What are your sticky basketball ideas? Share some that you've stolen or developed.

Find ways to make your teammates better. 
Cut and pass...or sit. 
Create and deny separation. 
Invest time don't spend it. 
"Do more to become more; become more to do more."

Lagniappe:

"Many ball screens in Spain are not designed to penetrate the defense. They’re simply used to disorganize the defense."

Chris Oliver shares video and concepts from Spain.