Today, during practice 128 with a team of titans in the making, we did a little visual learning together. I primed the team to watch two types of fights portrayed in the clip. The first is the classic fight to prove a point. This fight happens everyday all over the place whether the participants are the rough and tumble tattooed type or the slickwilly, political, professional types. Yes, I prefer the former.
We watched a team of titans fight like neanderthals and then we watched ’em fight to improve performance. We then spoke and listened about what we observed. I tuned in like an animal being stalked, hoping to hear the team observing themselves in both sterotypes. Funny, they mostly observed the productive fighters. In fact when they shared with the entire team, nobody mentioned the fight to prove a point. They left it out of their narrative completely. Funny, isn’t it how our brains tend to focus on our dream state; current one, not so much…
So, less than an hour into practice, I asked why nobody noticed the first fight or at least didn’t comment about it. Stevo said because it was mostly non-verbal and where there’s smoke there is fire. We don’t like to look at what we don’t want to think we are. We all focused and talked about the productive fights, Stevo continued. Frankee came clean with his dislike of conflict, any conflict. Goalie noticed the first fight was out of ignorance and we tend to look away quickly. Most fights to prove a point, she continued, are because somebody is closed minded.
And, most fights on whatever team you find yourself upon are these kinda fights. Most normal teams fight out of ignorance, most of the time. They want to prove they are right and marketing got it wrong. They want to prove they are right, the international guys got it wrong. They want to prove they’re right, sales doesn’t know what they’re talking about. They want to prove they’re right, the other ambassador is wrong. They want to prove they’re right, the leader is simply out of touch. They want to prove they’re right ’cause it hurts too much to think otherwise. So, we fight. Left and right. East and west. Us and them. Me and you.
Want a better team? Learn to fight for performance. Start by fighting with yourself. Look in the mirror. Realize you have blind spots. Admit your weaknesses. Ask the team for help. Let in their perspective even when it hurts. Realize the strength you gain as you stop hiding and start building within. Gain confidence, clarity, and conviction as you kick your own ’cause you want to improve your performance. Someday, after some tough learning within, you’re gonna throw the mask in the toilet kinda like my friend Z did today. Your gonna face your fears and speak truth, anyway. FM, Z. FM…
Humbly, like Coach Yoast, you’ve gotta admit you’re getting your ASS kicked and ask for some help. Humbly you will receive what you ask for. Today, we watched a tiny clip from the film, Remember the Titans. And, we began to become a team of titans ourselves. We began this by fighting the tendency to hide. FM, baby. More and more of kman’s krazies are getting in the habit of coming clean. It’s spreading. Truth is like that. Once a bit of it breaks through the darkness it explodes kinda the way light enters a room when you simply flip a switch. You see, fighting to improve performance is all about truth. You gotta move from spinning some kinda bullshit, through truth in anger and toward the freakin’ magic of truth in LOVE. Today, fear took a hit. Love lit us up. I love this work and I love this team. God, help me become a virtuous lover of both. God help me turn up Titan Z and Titan Y.O.U.. God, help me…
BUILT TO LEAD 