“He had a personality and a style, but he didn’t have a system. Nothing that he’d written down.”
– Greg Bishop in the August 3, 2015 Sports Illustrated cover story on Pete Carroll
A system.
Not only what we want to accomplish but how we’ll go about it.
Bishop details Carroll’s epiphany after reading one of John Wooden’s books — Wooden the legendary college basketball coach who took 18 years to win his first national championship and then won 10, including seven in a row a one point of his career — and then altering his approach to sweat the details. Every detail. Bishop says that Carroll “dissected every aspect of performance.” He asked everyone from his assistant coaches to rappers, CEO’s, janitors and golfers to “explain their vision in 30 words or less.”
Finally, having a system allowed Carroll to diversify his talent. Steve Kerr, the coach of the NBA World Champion Golden State Warriors visited Seattle and noticed the sheer number of strong personalities on Seattle’s roster, but also how Carroll “encouraged rather than restricted what made them different from their teammates.” One player, who later saw his production taper off under a coach who tried to make everyone conform said, “If you don’t feel your individuality is respected, a piece of you doesn’t show up to work. You can’t be who you are. Pete understands you can’t reach everybody in the same way.”
Systematizing puts us in a position to diversify, surrounding ourselves with parts that add up to more than the sum of those parts. Systematizing allows us to leverage what makes us different as leaders, as coaches, as individual performers. In short, as difference makers.
If we can define our vision in 30 words or less, we either have, or are on the verge of having a system. And a system is something worth having.
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