This article marks the ninth installment for the 13 Beliefs of Good Coaches. This post investigates the belief that thinking out of the box is important for any coach. Encouraging your players, staff, and yourself to be innovative is vital. BUT, it is also your job to stop all bad ideas and most of the good ones too.
Far and away one of my favorite sports movies of all time is Moneyball. Moneyball is the story of how Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, transformed the game of baseball by taking a sophisticated sabermetric approach to scouting and analyzing players. The reason I loved the movie was because it portrayed an aspect of coaching that is often overlooked by the media. Sure, there are a ton of great movies, books, and documentaries about a coach that inspires his team to greatness (my all-time favorite of these is Hoosiers). There are also wonderful stories about a coach who makes a personal connection with their athletes and helps them find exactly what they need to succeed (Million Dollar Baby). However, how many movies can you name that describe the innovative aspect of coaching?
Some coaches are natural innovators. They are masters at creating an environment that is both novel and familiar at the same time. I have come to call these types of coaches Architects. They believe designing and controlling the environment is the key to success. Architects seek to intervene in the flow of events to produce a desired effect, weaving a tapestry from the possibly mundane aspects of coaching, into a unique and potentially successful whole. In essence, these innovators hope to influence opponents out of their “comfort-zone”, and force them to play a new game.
There are three important things to remember to be a good Architect:
Innovation doesn’t require change on the scale of Moneyball. Sometimes the best innovation is about re-introducing an old scheme or strategy. Innovation is relative; it is all about the local context, your environment. What would cause your opponent fits? What would help your athletes build on their strengths? The goal as a good coach should be to bring novelty to your program, shake things up from time to time. Failure, confusion, and conflict are par for the course, and, even when you are doing things right, it involves killing good ideas and making people angry. That said, it is your job to find the best way to help your players turn innovation into a routine system. That’s when you move from the “nutty professor” to the true Architect.
Far and away one of my favorite sports movies of all time is Moneyball. Moneyball is the story of how Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, transformed the game of baseball by taking a sophisticated sabermetric approach to scouting and analyzing players. The reason I loved the movie was because it portrayed an aspect of coaching that is often overlooked by the media. Sure, there are a ton of great movies, books, and documentaries about a coach that inspires his team to greatness (my all-time favorite of these is Hoosiers). There are also wonderful stories about a coach who makes a personal connection with their athletes and helps them find exactly what they need to succeed (Million Dollar Baby). However, how many movies can you name that describe the innovative aspect of coaching?
Some coaches are natural innovators. They are masters at creating an environment that is both novel and familiar at the same time. I have come to call these types of coaches Architects. They believe designing and controlling the environment is the key to success. Architects seek to intervene in the flow of events to produce a desired effect, weaving a tapestry from the possibly mundane aspects of coaching, into a unique and potentially successful whole. In essence, these innovators hope to influence opponents out of their “comfort-zone”, and force them to play a new game.
There are three important things to remember to be a good Architect:
- Innovation must solve a clear and recognized problem. Too often coaches introduce a new or innovative strategy that serves no purpose. Innovation just for the sake of innovation does not lead to improvement.
- Innovation takes time. Any new idea, technique, or strategy needs fine tuning. The goal of introducing novelty in a sports context is to gain a competitive advantage over your opponents, to accomplish this, the innovation must first become routine for your own athletes before it will cause problems for the other team. Each innovation has its own growing pains that must be endured on the path to success.
- Innovation will cause resistance. People are always hesitant to adopt something new. This truism is important for two reasons: First, when you encounter resistance that is a clue that you have found a real innovative idea. Second, remember point #2, give them time to adapt. Patience and attention to the resistor’s concerns are much more effective than demanding change happens now just because you said so.
Innovation doesn’t require change on the scale of Moneyball. Sometimes the best innovation is about re-introducing an old scheme or strategy. Innovation is relative; it is all about the local context, your environment. What would cause your opponent fits? What would help your athletes build on their strengths? The goal as a good coach should be to bring novelty to your program, shake things up from time to time. Failure, confusion, and conflict are par for the course, and, even when you are doing things right, it involves killing good ideas and making people angry. That said, it is your job to find the best way to help your players turn innovation into a routine system. That’s when you move from the “nutty professor” to the true Architect.
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