Data for direction

The Dolphins’ 31-27 win adds another digit in the W column making the Week 5 benchmark at 2-3. As a coach, where do you from here? Data driven decisions are important, yet which data actually can lead to an improvement plan? Especially when coming off a win, it is important to escape the feeling of “it’s not broke, so why fix?” While numbers are everywhere, 2-3 or 31-27 hardly provides the direction we need for improvement.

To give you an idea of the range of data, below is a smidgen published by the Sun-Sentinel; these indicators provide the surface view. Just how much depth can you go? For the football coach each indicator is just the start of the conversation, hopefully leading to an action for improvement.

As a teacher looking at student work, completing the assignment might just give you the Win-Loss assessment, but where do you for depth? What data actually aids in changing instruction? Take a closer look.

Total first downs by rushing
Total first downs by passing
Total first downs by penalty
Third down efficiency
Fourth down efficiency
Total net yards
Total offensive plays
Average gain per offensive play
Net yards rushing
Total rushing plays
Average gain per rushing play
Net yards passing
Times thrown - yards lost attempting to pass
Gross yards passing
Pass attempts-completions-had intercepted
Average gain per pass play (inc. # thrown passing)
Punts number and average
Net punting average
Total return yardage (not including kickoffs)
Yards punt returns
Yards kickoff returns
Yards interception returns
Penalties number and yards
Fumbles number and lost
Touchdowns rushing/passing
Extra points made-attempts
Field goals made-attempts
Safeties
Time of possession

New Team Leader

For just over a year the team turned to Chad Pennington as their quarterback and as the team leader. Now with an injury ending Pennington’s season and possibly his career, Chad Henne stepped in to the role of Dolphins’ new quarterback. The key to the team’s success over the Bills has two distinct parts: 1) the comfort that Henne showed behind center and 2) the performance of the rest of the team.

Before being asked to lead the team, he was provided a year to learn, to practice, to fail and to succeed. Even though Henne was forced to start his season ahead of schedule, his role of understudy behind Pennington showed his patience on the field and smart decisions at the line. As the new leader emerged his team stepped up their game and had his back. What we learned here is that developing talent is a process not an event.

Developing Talent

The wrestling business knows how to develop talent.

Growing up I watched World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) for mindless pleasure in the back and forth battles between good and evil wrestlers. Now my interest is with the backstage news and politics that developed talent that transformed a local promotion into a global business.

As reported from Ewrestling News the experienced wrestlers (Edge, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio) are working really hard with the newbies in the business (John Morrison, Dolph Ziggler, Mike Knox). These newbies are being viewed as potential Superstars a change “to the veteran mentality in the past where the opinion of newer talent was that they haven't paid their dues or are missing something important to become a star.”

The relationship between the two groups is grounded in the common goal to provide the customers with a quality product. The mentoring relationship is critical to this success and that of each individual and of the organization. What drives the Superstar to mentor is the recognition of being a locker room leader and is rewarded with television airtime and pay per view opportunities. What is unique in WWE is that worth ethic is evaluated by how well you make your opponent look good during a performance. Can you imagine if our educators were evaluated with the same criteria? This connection will have me looking for similar relationships with our classroom teachers. Just what is the veteran mentality? What will inspire competent and qualified teachers to mentor? Are new educators viewed as potential superstars? Does the success of the team outweigh the success of the individual?

Focus on improvement before the win

When inducting new football players to the team there are practical tips that I believe can be easily transferred to our work. Since new players are expected to perform with the same results as their veteran teammates here are two sensible acts that coaches can easily implement:

Tip #1- Reduce the number of plays to study. There is a greater chance of success that a new player will learn 20 offensive schemes than 50. Develop the first 20 to mastery before biting off more than you can digest. Assist the new player in identifying the best 20 plays for success.

Tip #2- Focus on the technique not on the Win. While the goal of the game is to add another number in the win column, the time spent planning, the time spent practicing, and the time spent reflecting should be invested on what skills and techniques need improvement. When working with the new player assist with focusing on the need without forgetting the purpose of the game.

Prepare your replacement

When I sign off on my emails I leave the reader with the thought, “How has your support system prepared your replacement?” I started to use this phrase during the Induction Systems course based on the belief that if your work is producing results, there is a strong chance that you will eventually leave the organization (probably to replicate the success), and if the work is valuable then it must continue. To avoid starting at zero and maintain success then promote from within and only hire from the outside when change is needed.

Without any prompting from the Teacher Development Department, Florida Gator head coach immediately recognized the results of an effective induction system and identified Steve Addazio as his next his next offensive coordinator replacing Dan Mullen. The induction carrot is that Dan Mullen did not lateral into a similar position but moved from offensive coordinator to the head coach of Mississippi State. Dan’s legacy will continue with Steve and those who follow.

If you believe this might have been an induction fluke, think again…the last three offensive coordinators under Urban Meyer have become head coaches.

Wax on, Wax off

Is it possible that essence of coaching is revealed through the 1984 movie The Karate Kid? If you have not seen the movie in a while rent it or just search You Tube for the training scenes. While watching the movie on AMC I noticed the following:

The essentials taught to Daniel:

• Wax on, Wax off
• Paint the fence
• Paint the house (side to side)
• Always look eye
• Whole life has a balance

Mr. Miyagi’s words of reflection:
“We make sacred pact. I promise teach karate to you, you promise learn.”
"No such thing as bad student, only bad teacher."
"You trust quality of what you know, no quantity."

For some this is just an ‘80s feel good movie, while others see this as a make someone else feel good movie.How could you see this movie in a different way? What would this look like in a school setting?

Does Data Judge or Inform?

Last weekend the Miami Dolphins lost to the New York Jets starting off the season 0-1. As a coach, it would be difficult to establish an improvement plan with just this information. To improve performance a football coach and the players should analyzing player stats, play selections, practice time, and situations trying to find an edge to get better and to eventually win a game. Reaching the Super Bowl does not happen by focusing on the Win/Loss record or the trophy, but on the players.

If there is a need to improve and evaluate, Action Research (AR) provides a structure to analyze performance data and would be able to explain beyond the Win/Loss record of a student. As a classroom teacher AR provides background information to distinguish between mastery and adequate performance (Sagor, 2000). Taking the same attitude of the football coach into the classroom means to constantly analyze data to look for edges in students, working to try to help them improve, no matter what the objective.

Working at Office Depot

While waiting at Office Depot for my paperwork to clear, I had the chance to talk to the store manager about his company’s orientation for new employees. He shared with me that he strives to instill a sense of pride with his staff. What stood out was his goal to have each employee feel like he/she was part owner of the store. It was quite clear that the objective of the orientation focused on Attitude and Aspirations. When it comes to building Knowledge and Skills the manager turn to his staff. Even though there is an assigned coaching team that includes the store manager, every staff member becomes available to step into the coaching role.

Coaching: Nice or Helpful?

It is unfortunate that Randy Pausch’s death on last Friday led me to write this post, and I am fortunate that Randy Pausch’s life has led me to write this post.

While rummaging through the endless videos and blogs honoring Randy I found an article on mentoring by Professor Kirk Martini who shared his experience when he had Randy as a college mentor. The title of his paper reflects a belief that I have about mentoring and the relationship you have with your client, “Usually Nice, Always Helpful: A Mentor’s Approach”.

Kirk begins immediately with a belief statement that I know will rub some experienced coaches the wrong way. He starts, “Being a mentor is not about being nice, it’s about being helpful.” Now this does not mean that a coach must approach the client by providing cruel and unusual punishment, when providing support effective coaching behaviors such as building trust and effective communication skills must not be overlooked. Yet at the time of support a coach must be the one who should push the hardest, demand more, and irritate you the most. A Coach should know that as hard as he/she can push, reality will always deal a stronger blow. Kirk explains that while he felt relieved when his time with Coach Randy came to a close, he knew that “Randy understood my long-term future was more important than my short-term comfort.”

Would you rather have your coach as someone who is always nice, usually helpful or usually nice, always helpful?

American Idol is Feedback

Every week during the Spring television season millions of viewers are exposed to performances of possibly the next American Idol. What they also view are examples of different coaching behaviors from Randy, Paula, and Simon. For the past seven seasons these three have established their own styles of feedback.

Randy provides technical feedback. All I know about music is what I like and what I don’t like. Randy shares with us feedback on tone, range, and pitch. What is important is this technical jargon must make sense to the performer. Paula provides the emotional feedback. Regardless of the quality of the performance, she always begins with a positive comment to make the performer feel good. What comes next out of her mouth as valuable to the participants is open for debate. Simon provides the honest critical feedback. In his role as a listener, he shares how he feels about the performance in a straight direct approach. His feedback is strictly professional.

While all three are distinctly different all styles have a purpose. When providing feedback to teachers a coach must know how and when to provide feedback like Randy, Paula, and Simon.

Avoiding Relapse

Not during this lifetime did I expect to think addiction and rehabilitation had anything to do with Induction.

As Induction in Broward County is not a “one-shot orientation”, but systems of processes embedded in all that we do to grow as educators; recovery is just not a “one-shot stint of rehab”, but a system that draws upon beliefs, values, and collaboration that focuses on new learning.

When attempting to make a change in your life, Dr. Drew from VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab” points out that “Creation of Change” and “Sustainability of Change” are two completely different and equal components of growth. He not only introduces new choices in life, new approaches in decision-making and problem solving, but also prepares the patient to identify support systems that will reinforce the new paradigm after the doctor has left.

It appears that without a plan to sustain the new behavior, the creation of change might just be an exercise of futility.

Growing your own

For months my HRD Program Facilitator partner has included in her email signature the phrase “Induction: Nothing beats growing your own!” We are constantly reminded that when developing competent and qualified teachers, one of the most effective ways is to take ownership for professional development. It also appears that Marvel Comics harbors that same belief.

(The following requires your suspension of disbelief)
When faced with the recent death of Captain America Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada states, "We were toying with the idea of someone new taking over the mantle of Captain America," Quesada said by phone from his New York office. "But we kept coming back to Bucky.” Bucky Barnes was the Captain’s sidekick for many years before he went missing at the end of WWII and later returned to join his side. Yet during their time together Bucky took every opportunity to learn from his role model.

After his death, Steve Rogers expressed in a previously written letter that the mantle of Captain America needs to continue. The replacement needs to uphold all of Captain’s beliefs, morals, and values. The replacement needs to meet and possibly exceed the expectations of the people Captain America has protected for many years. Who else better to serve that role than Bucky?

For those keeping track on comic book heroes and preparing replacements, when Bruce Wayne was injured with a broken back and faced with making a decision for a Batman replacement he chose someone else other than Dick Grayson. He felt Robin was not ready for the dangers that came with the mantle of the Bat. Even though Dick constantly demonstrated his maturity, Bruce was blinded by his own emotions and failed to give him the opportunity he has been preparing for. Bruce chose someone who had the skills, yet lacked the attitude and aspiration. This KASAB deficit led to a complete breakdown of crime fighting responsibilities in Gotham. Eventually Robin did what he was trained to do and stepped up and took out Bruce’s first choice. When the time comes to step aside, Bruce will not make the same mistake twice. Nothing beats growing your own!

Is it Culture Shock or Culture Change?

I am not going to be another fan who joins the “Here we go again” bandwagon with the new Dolphin head coach. Even though Tony Sparano was named the latest head coach in what seems to be a revolving door of leaders for this organization I have seen two indicators that just might produce different results.

1) Identifying and hiring a leader. When it comes to Dolphin football, the buck stops with Bill Parcells. He has a vision and hired management staff who has already demonstrated similar beliefs.

2) A Coach who understands coaching. When asked about his players, Sparano keyed in on what the research says about achieving results- it’s about the coaching. "We're going to surround our players with the best coaches and teachers. We're going to work them as hard as we can. At the end of the day, we hope that will be good enough." Being hired by Bill Parcells, we know Tony’s work will hard and SMART.

For the past few years the Dolphins have not been meeting their AYP goals, Tony believes he is the right person to lead this organization. Does everyone else feel the same way?

It is all about Scrubs

Now that summer is over and the routine of my job seeps back into my life there is one daily pleasure that I noticed missing…my hour of Scrubs. I will admit that for practically every day Monday through Friday from 7:00-8:00 p.m. on Comedy Central I sat, watched and reflected along with John “JD” Dorian as he struggled with making sense of understanding friends, work, and the big picture of life.

Watching Scrubs was not always a staple in my TV viewing habit, heck I have not watched NBC’s “Much Watch TV” night since Sam and Diane has their thirteenth break-up. Yet on one of the first Sunday’s of the summer, the staff at Sacred Heart Hospital was featured in a 22-episode marathon. I would not be exaggerating if I confessed to watching all 22 episodes, but since the show has a strong connection to coaching and mentoring I’ll just chalk this up as my professional learning time.

If you are unfamiliar with the show, each episode chronicles the lives of a close-set group of doctors and nurses as they find their niche in each other lives and in a profession they hold dear. I was amazed on how each episode touched a day in my life, as if the writers were secretly watching my every boring move. Perhaps I sympathized with JD as he grew from a newbie intern into a confident resident or maybe it was the callous big-hearted Dr. Cox whose favorite coaching tool was his own sharp-witted tongue. What I do know is that the episode called, “My Fifteen Minutes” had me a believer that the writers in the show knew much more about professional development than they did medicine.

After his first year as an intern, Dr. Cox asks JD to evaluate himself. Unfortunately JD was more concerned in the motivation behind this demand than in actually fulfilling his coach’s request. The storyline leads up to a pivotal point in understanding Dr. Cox’s role as a mentor and the true nature of accountability and evaluation.

How come Hollywood writers understand that the value of accountability and evaluation does not stem from a paper form but from the SELF? When looking back at your experiences as a coach or being coached do you find yourself acting like Dr. Cox or JD?

Below is the best version of the script from the conclusion of “My Fifteen Minutes” or now know as “Evaluation Drama.”

Dr. Cox: (emerging from the shadows) It's time. Sit down.
[J.D. sits]
Now what do you want me to say? That you're great? That you're raising the bar for interns everywhere?
J.D.: I'm cool with that.
Dr. Cox: Well I'm not gonna say that. You're okay. You might be better than that someday, but right now all I see is a guy who's so worried about what everybody else thinks of him that he has no real belief in himself. I mean, did you even wonder why I told you to do your own evaluation?
J.D.: I can't think of a safe answer, I just figured...
Dr. Cox: CLAM UP! I wanted you to think about yourself, and I mean really think. What are you good at? What do you suck at? And then I want you to put it down on paper. And not so I could see it, and not so somebody else could see it, but so you could see it. Because ultimately, you don't have to answer to me, and you don't have to answer to Kelso...you don't even have to answer to your patients, for God's sake! You only have to answer to one guy, newbie, and that's you! There. You are...evaluated. (tosses evaluation to J.D.) Now get out of my sight. You get me so angry I'm afraid I just might hurt myself.

You Can Do It, We Can Help.

Training support for Home Depot’s new employees usually came in the form of plumbing, electrical, flooring, hardware, and lightening content. Now it is common to hear professional development terms such as online training, coaching, demonstration, mastery, role-playing, and mentoring.

When looking at developing new employees, Home Depot’s director of learning believes in a balance between online training and on the job training. New knowledge and skill content area comes in the form of online training. The balance of the employees’ professional development comes in the form of job-embedded coaching.

They key to Depot’s training success lies with the combination of coaching and demonstration of mastery of new employee skills. How are knowledge and skills introduced at your work site? How does your coaches add value to the work of your new employees?

Customer needs assistance in hardware!

A Wrestling Coach

Professional wrestling, or better known today as Sports Entertainment has been entertaining my dad and I (and now my nephew too) for the past 30 years. What I did not know was that the Induction concept of “preparing your replacement” was embedded in the wrestling culture.

Vincent Kennedy McMahon, current chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is not only a billionaire wrestling promoter and an onscreen wrestling personality, he is the coordinator of a highly visible coaching program. Vince didn’t invent the program, but his actions demonstrate a commitment to professional development.

Throughout the week and between live performances WWE Superstars practice wrestling moves, memorize lines, and stick to an intense exercise program. On the other side of the ropes, Vince and his staff is constantly recruiting younger talent and seeking the assistance of wrestling coaches in the form of “older” talent. When Vince develops the wrestling storylines it is common practice to put a newbie in a program with one of the experienced wrestlers. Once the bell rings, a wrestler is only as good as his opponent; in the wrestling culture it is expected that the WWE Superstars “put over” the younger talent. This is a great example of coaching on the job.

Just as I still cheer for Rick Flair and Hulk Hogan, my nephew cheers for their replacements, WWE Superstars Ken Kennedy and Paul London.

Being A Coach at Denny's

4:00 AM at Denny’s Restaurant was not the place where I would expect to find elements of Induction. A few items that demonstrated a Recipe for Success included…

1) A new waitress was teaming/shadowing with an experienced server in the middle of the night. The middle of the night is probably the best time to model, provide opportunity to learn, coach and provide feedback for a new employee.

2) Regardless of who “owned” the table, the wait staff worked together to make sure our needs were met. One server directed us to our table and served drinks while the Mentee and her Server Coach took the initial order. Additional wait staff constantly surveyed the area and refilled our drinks.

3) Service/support did not end when the meal was delivered. The Mentee and her Server Coach stopped by AFTER the meal to offer additional assistance.

4) Being There. At then end of the meal, the Mentee and her Server Coach stopped by, smiled, and said “Thanks for coming by, we hope to see you again.” By all means it was us who should had offered them THANKS for being there and providing a friendly experience.

We were quite impressed for a place that is known for the Slam and its 4:00 a.m. Grilled Cheese sandwich.

Do the Dolphins have an Induction Plan?

Miami Dolphin Head Coach, Nick Saban has a responsibility to develop his football team. This involves cutting (firing might be a more appropriate term) dozens of players until his team is at the NFL approved roster number of 53. I did not pay much attention to this process until I heard Coach Saban describe his team.

"We have three kinds of guys on our team," Saban said after conducting a practice in preparation for Sunday's home opener against the Bills.

(1st Type) "We have guys that get it; they play good; they understand how to play winning football.”

(2nd Type) "We have some guys that are trying to get it, and they are working hard every day. ... We are supporting them, and we want the guys that have it to support them.”

(3rd Type) "Then we have some guys that don't get it and don't know that they don't get it. We are trying to replace them."

One of the Dolphin players added, "That's how the program works, try to find the best players to win."

Are these TYPES of players found in our schools? Are there three types of teachers? Are there three types of Instructional Coaches? Are there three types of NESS Liaisons? Are there three types of NESS Program Facilitators? Are there three types of HRD Producers? Are there three types of Directors?

What do you do when a peer is unconscious and unaware? What is our role as support for the 3rd Type of player?

Instructional Coach Jedi Master

I was only nine when I first learned the way of the Jedi, and almost thirty years later there seems to be a lot more to learn. As I discovered the Jedi mentoring principles (see below), I wondered if George Lucas participated in HRD’s Induction Site-based Professional Development event.

1) Though some small Force abilities may be instinctive or learned from experience, to become a powerful Jedi you must train. For a student to learn skills at a more advanced level, he/she must be trained by a mentor. Training with a Jedi Knight or Jedi Master is the fastest way to learn and a Jedi trainee may also have multiple mentors in their lives.

2) A Jedi Master is extremely experienced in the ways of the Force. A Jedi Master can function as a teacher or a mentor. A Jedi Knight, although he knows the Force, still has much to learn.

3) When training with a teacher, the student gains the benefits of the experience and insight, which that teacher has to offer. The teacher knows what works and what doesn’t. He/she knows a proven method of learning because he has already been a student. Without a teacher, a Jedi student is at a severe disadvantage.

If you missed Star Wars on the big screen, from September 12 to December 31, the original Star Wars trilogy is available on DVD.