The best practices mimic real life whether you’re practicing in sport or in whatever is your work. These kinda practices have an element of randomness to them. Think about it. How often during a game of college hoops does a wingman receive a perfect pass from his/her point guard? Not nearly as often as they recieve an imperfect one. Fact.
So, today, and everyday you decide to practice with your team don’t just run them through some kinda routine drills. Throw them off kilter with assignments that push them the same way real life does. Master facilitators and builders understand this truth so they purposely push their team into tension, trauma, and tests that are right at the edge of their ability – sometimes just beyond.
Peter Vint, a sports scientist on the U.S. Olympic Committee, is trying to get all our coaches to introduce more variation and stress in practice. The problem is he’s having a hard time getting a lot of buy-in because it’s scary to coaches. You see, when you make practice mimic real life, the practice looks messy and clumsy. Too many coaches, it turns out, still care a bit too much about how practice looks.
Practice, the good, building kinds of practice, are not going to look pretty. Get comfortable with this, leader. Every BTL practice follows this discipline. The builder comes prepared and remains open to the ideas all around. In an instant he decides the direction and usually makes it messy on purpose. Good. Go and do likewise. If ugly wins are good what in the world do you think led to them? Certainly not pretty practices. Funny, huh…
BUILT TO LEAD 