Commit the Foul
A couple of weeks ago my son's basketball team finally won their first game. To say they were excited would be an understatement. As their coach, I was relieved we weren't going to be 0-8 for the season!
Before the season started it was obvious that our team would have its challenges. The team's tryout assessment results were below average, two-thirds struggle with attention and temperament issues, and many had never even played basketball before.
Needless to say, not a great recipe for wins.
So what was the secret to our win (and an almost win this last week)?
๐๐ด๐ด๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐.
Instead of focusing on doing all of the basketball things perfectly, I told the team the ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ I wanted from them was aggressiveness. If a ball was on the ground, they were on the ground fighting for it. Every chance they got, they were supposed to go for a steal. We even celebrated when somebody got called for a foul because it meant they were doing everything they could to get the ball.
The results of focusing on aggressiveness:
โข๐๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ด๐ and ๐ฒ๐
๐ฐ๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ went through the roofโฆ for both the team and the crowd!
โขWe got way more ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐๐ป๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ to take shots and increase our score.
โขOur ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐ณ๐น๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฑ and couldn't make anything happen.
โขOur lack of skills/talent and ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ธ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐บ๐ฒ ๐น๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐น๐ฒ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐.
โขIt tapped into my team's ability to only ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฐ๐๐ ๐ผ๐ป ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด - get the ball!
So many of our weaknesses and shortcomings as a team and individuals can become less relevant simply by increasing our aggressiveness. Focus on the main thing and make serious moves to move in the direction of the main thing.
At Pattern we want people to ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ถ๐น ๐ฎ๐ด๐ด๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐น๐. Itโs a staple of our Learning Forward core value and a driving force of our Own It core value.
๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ช๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ.
Celebrate failure (learning experience).
Enjoy more opportunities to win.