A culture of excellence evolves in differing ways. UNC soccer coach Anson Dorrance posts Excellence Is Our Only Agenda in the locker room. Aerosmith held weekly "Dare to Suck" meetings. "(Steven) Tyler said, ‘Each one of us brings an idea that we think is probably terrible, and that we are embarrassed that we even have the idea. But we present it. And nine times out of ten, the idea is actually terrible. But one time out of ten you get Dude Looks Like a Lady or Love in an Elevator.’" The State Department has operated the "Dissent Channel" since the Vietnam War to get opposition policy responses. Breadth of ideas asserts a better process.
In the 1960s, Marshall Space Flight Center Director Wernher von Braun solicited weekly "Monday Notes" to encourage engineers to share their ideas, successes, and failures.
Roger Launius writes, "Von Braun asked each of his senior managers to send him once a week a one page, paragraph style description of each week’s progress and problems. Submitted each Monday morning, it dealt with the previous week’s events and von Braun encouraged his reportees to offer totally candid assessments, with no repercussions for unsolved problems, poor decisions, and the like."
"After von Braun left as director in 1971 his successor stopped making comments on the notes; they ceased to be useful for top to bottom communication."
I was in a Navy "All Hands" meeting over thirty years ago where a senior physician shared his opinion. The ranking officer replied, "Captain, if I want your opinion, I'll ask for it." No more questions ensued.
Is what matters executing a plan well or my way? Effective teaching and feedback systems are critical to having a plan come together.
How does this apply for our basketball programs?
1) Superiors have different expectations, values, and constraints than we have.
2) Resource concerns are unavoidable (e.g. practice gear, practice time).
3) Divergent opinions on techniques and tactics may exist, too.
4) "Stale" basketball can result from too casual or too intense approaches (overwork).
5) Players and families will always have concerns about minutes and roles. Sometimes it spills over into concerns about recognition.
What would it be like to have each assistant, each player, and even parents submit Monday Notes? Could we subjugate our ego for the good of the whole and let reason stand above excuses? It could be a disaster or amazing.
Getting input from many sources lends perspective to our progress and problems. Welcome comments and criticism to foster improvement. Dare to fail; dare to disagree. If we don't ask, we can't know.
Lagniappe: Taste in basketball is like taste in food or music. When we haven't survey tasted, our opinion, right or wrong, is less informed.
"The System" is basketball in hyperspeed. It's a viable style but is it the way to teach youth basketball? Should we expose our teams to it as an aid to transition teaching?
Lagniappe 2: I'm watching the Tony Hawk MasterClass on Skateboarding. You won't see me on a skateboard, but I love the ethos of the sport. Competitors RALLY around a kid trying a new trick. They want her to know the feeling of success. Basketball can use more of that.
