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)?
 
๐—”๐—ด๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€.

Instead of focusing on doing all of the basketball things perfectly, I told the team the ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ญ๐˜บ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ 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:


โ€ข๐—˜๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ด๐˜† and ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ went through the roofโ€ฆ for both the team and the crowd!
โ€ขWe got way more ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€ to take shots and increase our score.
โ€ขOur ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—น๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ and couldn't make anything happen.
โ€ขOur lack of skills/talent and ๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜.
โ€ขIt tapped into my team's ability to only ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐˜€ ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฒ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด - 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 ๐—ณ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—น ๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น๐˜†. Itโ€™s a staple of our Learning Forward core value and a driving force of our Own It core value.
 
๐˜Š๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฎ๐˜ช๐˜ต ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ญ.
Celebrate failure (learning experience).
Enjoy more opportunities to win.

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