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Moving Forward

December 28, 2012

Coaches will often convey to their teams a variation of this theme:  “If we’re not moving forward, we’re falling behind.”  And with such immediate feedback – the next contest – coaches can measure their team’s progress quite easily. Progress is harder to measure for the organizations that serve and support coaches and athletes.

If we are doing our jobs well, we will have both an “inside game” and an “outside game.”  We will create our own opportunities to improve our services and we will be alert to opportunities to improve ourselves when they are handed to us or forced upon us from outside sources.  Both types of change can be positive.

  • Change from inside has the benefit of institutional knowledge.  This change can be informed, measured and careful to avoid unintended consequences that hurt more than help customers.
  • Change from outside can be less rational but also less restrained by history and culture.  It can be more disruptive in a positive sense, perhaps more innovative in origin and more expansive in impact.

It’s my sense that, as the calendar turns from 2012 to 2013, the MHSAA is at the merging of two lanes of traffic – an inside lane of change combining with an outside lane change – which will modify some services and move them forward at unprecedented speeds during the new year and the next.

  • This has been obvious as we have partnered with ArbiterSports to prepare the ArbiterGame scheduling software for our member schools.  Hard work internally that’s about to show results to schools and their publics.
  • This may become obvious as we expand our schedule of inexpensive camps for inexperienced officials.  This could be an antecedent to additional training requirements for MHSAA tournament officials.  The public expects better, and we can do better.
  • This may also become obvious as we expand offerings and then add requirements for coaching education focused on maximizing good health and minimizing risk.  There is a gathering parade of experts and evidence advocating for much more training for many more coaches; and we must find our way to the head of that column.

Go With It

April 30, 2012

One of my counterparts in another state asked me last week, “How do you do it?”  He meant, how do I find time to prepare two blog postings every week; and he also meant, how do I find topics for 104 postings each year; and he also meant, how do I go about the actual writing?

As for finding time, it’s no problem; because writing helps me think.  It helps me clarify and prioritize.  And going public with these thoughts helps me be more certain that I’m committed to the ideas.  For me, writing daily is as important as breathing deeply.

As for finding topics, it’s rarely a problem.  I find subject matter in what I read, what I hear and what I observe in everyday life and worldwide travel.  And I’ve discovered that the richest sources for writing about school sports are often found the furthest from school sports.

And as for the actual technique, I go about it this way:  I try to provide a plain circle, and then invite readers to color it however they wish, to use any shade they prefer, to color outside the lines if they think that’s most beneficial to their situation.

When we were children we were praised for coloring within the lines and utilizing the appropriate shades for sun, sky, grass and flowers.  These days I just want to provide a blank circle and ask, “What can you do with that?”  Not dictating what readers should do, but inviting readers to take an idea and do with it what they will where they live, work and play.

At least that’s what I want to do.