One of my friends sent me this story, with a completely different analysis. Of course, I know mine is better :-). (BTW, I don’t follow football, so I hope I have not ruined the basic elements.)
The Green Bay Packers were on a roll- perfect losing for about ten years. They jugged the bottom of the standings and morale was non-existent. You should know that the Packers are the only non-profit, community-owned franchise in American professional sports major leagues. Obviously, with so much community pride at stake, things had to change- and fast.
Enter, On February 2, 1959, Vince Lombardi from the New York Giants, as the new coach. His sole function was to turn this team around. So, he did the usual- held practices, tried to motivate his team, get them together. It was not working. He blows his whistle. “Everybody stop and gather around,” he said. Then he knelt down, picked up the football, saying, “Let’s start at the beginning. This is a football. These are the yard markers. I’m the coach. You are the players.” He went on in the most elementary of ways to explain the basics of football. That’s the story.
The results- over the next seven years, the Packers won FIVE championships. Lombardi knew he needed to get his team to employ a common
language and goals.
Yes, we all know things- but we may not use the same terms for each action. And, as Lombardi did, we need to insure that our team (our staff) needs a common language to insure that everyone understands his/her role in the success of the
enterprise. Our team must buy into the major goals (less than three- always) we have established.
Well, what are you waiting for? Go, team!
