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Sunday, July 7, 2024

Non-Negotiables, "The Bear" and Basketball

Hulu's The Bear isn't solely about food or the restaurant industry. It's about the obsession with excellence and what it does for and to us. 

Carmy ("The Bear") has a passion for food and a need for validation with a Michelin star. The star is his white whale. How is that different from executives, coaches, and players committed to excellence?

To support his dream, Carmy develops a list of non-negotiables. Some read as though from a coaching manual. 


For example: 

1) Less is more. Doing well what we do a lot adds more value than doing a lot of mediocrity. Simplify. 

2) Vibrant collaboration. Shared vision, shared sacrifice, shared results. Great teams are organized, coherent, and always 'on the same page'. 

3) Confidence and compliance. Confidence helps us survive bad moments and bad days. Return to our core state. 

4) Pursuit of excellence. Coach Nick Saban says, "high performing people don't like low performers and low performers don't like high performers." Everyone has to set the bar high. 

5) Details matter. Think back to Jay Bilas's Toughness list. It's all about details.

  • "Get on the floor."
  • "Set up your cut." 
  • "Play so hard your coach has to take you out." 
  • "It's not your shot, it's our shot.
  • "Talk on defense."

6) "Know your shit." Players know our competence both in substance and in style. Don't expect them to cut us slack when we don't measure up. 

Every team needs a list of non-negotiables. It's not enough to have the list but to have team members on board. 

Lagniappe. "It takes what it takes." 

Lagniappe 2. Hurley on Hurley. 

Lagniappe 3. Train speed.  

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