I have been watching the various apologies by Houston Astro players and team executives for the sign stealing that they have been proven to have participated in during their 2017 championship season and I am surprised at a couple of things. I am surprised at the scripted apologies from multiple players. When someone else writes your apology,
Fear based decisions are always weak and sad and sometimes necessary for safety’s sake. Insecurity is always a slow poison that robs the team of the confidence necessary to have healthy relationships that lead to effective teamwork. However, fear of failure or a fear of not realizing potential is a healthy fear that should not be confused
Teams can waste time by doing things that are good but not best. Everyone can avoid the obvious time-wasters, but what happens when you are in a time crunch and have to choose between doing two very different activities that each have value towards the team’s goal? Great teams know when to say no to good things
Teams with any experience in succeeding know that “the ideal” is rarely ever found on the path to success. Success can seem elusive to those who limit thier scope of success to a narrow possiblility that requires everything to go exactly as expected. Success is much easier to find if the team is open to alternate routes
Teams often spend too much time reinventing the wheel. There are many methods out there that can be copied and applied to many situations. Pride can limit a team when they make up their mind that they have nothing to learn from others. Innovation is vital to any team’s problem-solving repertoire but it becomes wasteful when we
Teams cannot endure the challenges on the road to the top without having the ability to truly speak and receive truth from each other. If a team attempts something great without this ability, the journey will tear the team to pieces. Pride is a sneaky little choice that never lets anyone close enough to truly help me.
Since the past is certain, we can often define ourselves by it. Our pasts are part of us and they cannot be changed but our present offers us an opportunity to repeat the past so that our future will be just as certain. As terrible as this sounds, I believe people opt to repeat a certain past
Our fear of failure and pride can prevent us from wanting to take a look at the “game film” to see the details of the past, but when we are humble enough to want to be better, the eye in the sky doesn’t lie. We just have to be willing to see the brutal truth. The truth
Even the greatest planners are surprised by novel situations. In some ways, the very act of preparing for the possibility of being surprised mitigates the actual surprise when it comes. This allows a team to be in a better position to think on their feet and make sound adjustments without a panic. Overconfidence leads to an inflexible
Mistakes are inevitable but old mistakes should disappear as a team improves. New mistakes show that the team or individual is progressing. They are learning and moving on with care to avoid the things they have learned don’t work out for the best. Old mistakes demonstrate a lack of care and a recklessness that prevents the team