3. Championship Behaviors: Reducing the friction in pursuit of realizing our vision

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

CHAMPIONSHIP: Vigorous support or defense of SOMETHING.


QUOTABLE

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea“.                                                                                                -Antoine de Saint-Exupery. 

THE THOUGHT PROCESS

Let's pretend for a minute that SOMETHING, in the above definition, gets replaced with THE VISION.  As the head coach of this baseball program (or vice president of baseball operations, since head coaches are part of a larger organizational structure), my job is to outline how to get from "point A" to "our version of success."  My vision for our program needs to at least match the expectations of the institution; however, my expectations will always exceed those in place by the powers that be.  With the autonomy to operate as we best see fit, we designed the vision as laid out in the previous section on VISION.


Once that vision is in place, the vision needs to be kept in sight and we as a group need to define behaviors that will "reduce the friction" as the vision pulls us forward.
During a "skid" in the middle of our 2017 season, I delivered a post game talk.  It was a bit more emotionally charged than most; however, my delivery was not harsh or abrasive.  The point of the talk was employing "Championship Behaviors."  It was not scripted; however, out of some "thought process association,"  the term was coined.  Champions (in the more widely recognized sense of the term), champion their standard long before the last pitch.  When developing this idea, I have used the example of Coastal Carolina's National Championship run in 2016.  Before Cunningham's pivotal pitch was thrown, decisions were made days, weeks, years, even decades earlier.  Gary Gilmore's passion for his program and vision of where he wanted it to be was evident in their celebration.


What role do your team members (administration, staff, players, support staff) have in this?  By being "champions" or "defenders" of the vision through their daily actions.  As the head coach, if you are concerned people are not bought in...paint a clearer picture.  As a general rule of thumb for our program: breakdowns in communication, effort, performance, etc are opportunities for feedback to do your job better.

Behaviors that can defend or champion our vision include many things and are the responsibility of every member of our organization.  

From a player's perspective: 

-extra, intentional work at their craft
-communicate with the intent to improve (their skill, relationships, our culture)
-make decisions based on what's best for the program (on/off the field, classroom, etc)

From a staff perspective:

-be a student (of the game, organizational behavior/culture, etc.)
-managing and improving the processes that are in place to ensure easy execution
-request and act on feedback that can improve your program
-foster engagement through feedback, competition, and high level care for your people
-provide a path and clear the obstacles for your people to do great work

I have found the above quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupery to be relevant because if they believe in the vision, they will inherently work to protect it.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPT


Championship behaviors was originally meant to mean "championship" in the general sense of the term.  When asked to speak to our Men's Basketball program, I dug into definitions a bit deeper and realized that championship had a much stronger and deeper meaning.  Being a championship program is much more than collecting hardware, it has to do with defining a standard and vision, then proceeding to protect it.


Next up on November 20th... “Life as a ‘Recovering Micromanager: Conducting the the Orchestra”