Saturday, May 2, 2009

Adaptability

Young assistant basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski was perplexed why head coach Bobby Knight didn't run a grueling endurance drill for his Indiana team, the way he had as a West Point coach with Krzyzewski as his player.

"Michael," he replied, "there is a big difference between you and Quinn Buckner," referring to Indiana's star player.

At work two supervisors report to me. As we embark on a project to update our job manuals, it's important to me that they each be allowed to add their own style to it. It's also important that they allow their employees to do the same. In the end that will mean a little more variation than if we invented some kind of rigid standards. But the fact is that people's learning styles and comfort zones are unique and personal. The more important result is the buy-in and the sense that they truly own their piece of the project. To me, this is an element of high-functioning teams.

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