#150: Coach Phil Jackson (12): Implementing systems that make sense.

Coaches and leaders are charged with getting their teams to buy-in to the systems they’ll run together. How can coaches garner buy-in?

1. Reviewing metacognition. Ways to get there — reflection, feedback, mindfulness meditation, prayer.

2. Having unattached NBA coach give feedback and analysis of his team throughout the season.

3. Having a mentor or two who gave coach advice.

4. The importance of practice in implementing systems.

5. “We are decidedly subjective as human beings — we see things through our own lens.”

6. Coaches need to be purposeful about how we portray ourselves to the group. John Wooden: Coaching in games is mostly adjustments — you don’t want to inhibit performance.

7. Systems as ways of “making sense” of what our teams do.

8. What are the first steps that a coach takes in being a salesperson for their system? 

9. Metaphor to think about sense-making and systems: Mann Gulch fire of 1949. Norman MacLean.

10. Anticipating a 10:00am fire. Not giving due respect for the moment. How should we frame a season, an endeavor we’re undertaking with our group? Be physically capable. Use the system to guide the teaching. Repetition within the confines of the system. Teach the skills that are useful for in the moment under pressure. “For the want of a nail, a war was lost."

11. Implications of yelling: “Drop your tools!” “What is a smokejumper without his tools?” (Pulaski) 

12. "You have to break bad habits and implant new habits, which requires repetition. So you have to create meaningful repetition.” 

13. First steps in getting buy-in to the system. Sometimes it’s the stars (MJ, Kobe). Other times it’s others who have influence who can be key influencers in getting buy-in to the system. Boundary spanners. “Every team has that unspoken leader."

14. Improvising within a system. “A good system allows for skills that people might possess that are extraordinary.”

15. Benefits of a system: refer to Sport and the Growing Good episode #133.

16. “In an emergency, it’s much better if a decision comes from a group.” Give the team voice and authority.

17. Onboarding veterans onto a team. Having a designated person who helps them learn it. Using multiple methods.

18. Telling a player, “I see you as a leader.” Are leaders born or made? 

19. “Lone wolves need to submit to the system."