Book Of The Week: "Go Big" by Cory Cotton

What started out as a group of friends shooting buckets in the backyard just trying to one-up each other, turned into a 52 million-subscriber YouTube channel and over 11 million following on Instagram. You may have heard of these guys, they are the Dallas-based group of buddies known as Dude Perfect. 

The group of friends - Tyler Toney, Cody Jones, Garrett Hilbert, Coby Cotton and Cory Cotton - did something that anyone could have easily done. They quintet bought a basketball goal, put in their backyard, and starting doing trick shots with a camera recording all of it. It was quite simple. But they didn't didn't stop at trick shots. 

They expanded their arsenal. Tyler put it best "you don't keep people's attention and keep them coming back by giving them the same thing over and over again, so each video had to be better than the last." Creating battles where the five of them went head-to-head for an object freshly spray-painted in gold provided fans with new content and an opportunity to see each one of their personality. 

Fans saw the athletically-gifted Tyler seemingly win every single battle, while it took poor Coby over 18 individual battles to get his first victory. The trials and tribulations of watching Twin #1 try to gain his first battle victory was akin to Phil Mickelson winning his first major and the Red Sox and Cubs breaking nearly a century long World Series drought. Tired of seeing Tyler win all the time, fans began to jump on the Team Coby train (even Tyler was on-board at one point).* 

But the group didn't stop there. They are always looking to go bigger in everything they do - after all they are from Texas; every's always bigger in Texas. 

From battles, they moved to developing their 'Stereotypes' content - where they would pick one activity and poking fun at almost every type of person one would encounter. This is where fans fell in love with the "Rage Monster" - a character played by Tyler and destroyed everything. But they didn't stop here. They continued to go bigger. 

CMT picked up DudePerfect for their own TV series, which was then carried on by Nickelodeon for additional two seasons. More time for fans to see more of a behind the scenes. They granted loads of "Make of Wish" wishes, including making a trick shot video with them. 

Once fans were starting to attach to their personalities, they branched out again and went bigger, creating the Overtime Series. Overtime is the the crew's variety hour skit which incorporates the team's personalities of being "The Tall Guy" (Cody), "The Beard Guy" (Tyler), "The Purple Hoser" (Garrett) and "The Twins" (Coby and Cory). It was a success once again. 

Every time they grew and continued to try new things, they succeeded, in part because each time more of the crew's authentic personality came out. Which raises the importance of being authentic. People flocked to these guys because they showed their genuine emotions and viewers were able to empathize. 

Fans could see the disappointment and heartache when it seemed Coby could never win a battle - always coming up short. Just like when a professional sports team such as the Yankees or Patriots constantly win gets boring, fans saw the same thing with Tyler winning virtually every single battle. They saw Cory's frustration for picking his name EVERY SINGLE TIME during the "Wheel Unfortunate" segment, but Cory owned it and had some fun with. (Best one was when he had to fly to Wisconsin for absolutely no reason.) 

So everyone out there: Be genuine. Be Authentic. 

* - hint Coby finally did win his first battle after 29 attempts holding off Garrett in the Giant Sumo Battle. And unlike Jimmy Eat World, Coby wasn't a one-hit wonder. Another 19 battles later, he knocked off the Battle King, Tyler, winning the RC Airplane Battle. (A little luck went into this one.) 

Book of the Week: "When" by Daniel H. Pink

A few weeks ago, early on during quarantine, I read Daniel H. Pink's book "Drive" on motivation - what drives people to do what they do. A few quarantine weeks later, I picked up another Pink book "When" - focusing primarily on the timing of when things get done and when teams come together. It also explains why I suck on holes four, five, and six. But more on this later. 

All championship programs have many things in common. The first thing is the ability to coordinate with others in and across time. Last semester one of the things I was tasked with was working alongside another colleague to make sure all of our events were properly staffed and covered. Every Tuesday of the week, I would chat with my co-worker and ask where we stood with the week's games and where we needed assistance. Wherever we needed the assistance is the event I would be at - which actually in a few instances worked out well. 

Second, there was a saying my college coach used to say all the time "the team takes on the personality of the coach." At the time I really didn't think much of it, it just sounded good, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Pink uses the rowing position of the coxswain as an example of a group eight rowers syncing perfectly to a person who is oarless. The coxswain is not doin the work, but is essential to the boats speed and timing, just as the leader of a team / organization may not be doing the work but they are setting the tone of the organization. 

All great teams have the third feature: a sense of belonging. I remember working alongside our talented multimedia interns interviewing the women's swimming and diving coach for their "Meet The Coaches" segment. At a point during the interview, she mentioned her coaching philosophy and what drives her team "everyone has a role to play and should feel valued on our team; we take that very seriously." It is no wonder that her team has won four of the last six conference titles, took home 14 individual event championships last season and had the 15th best time in the nation in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a sub-seven minute time of 6:59.92. 

Having that sense of belonging to something greater makes people feel like they aren't alone. When everyone feels valued and appreciated, your team performs up better and in turn makes you look better as a coach and leader. 

The last part builds belonging and it's something that over the past four months due to the coronavirus pandemic we really haven't been able to do for fear of spreading the virus. It's the sense of touch. When you watch any sporting event (baseball, basketball, football), whenever player does something well you see the rest of the team congratulate them with fist bumps, handshakes, chest bumps, high-fives, etc. 

This is essential for team- and relationship-building. It's why at the end of a business agreement, we want to "shake on it" even if the other person says it's not necessary. We still want that bond that touch brings. Because of our current situation, this is something that has been reduced due to fears, but there are always creative ways around it. See the picture to the right of myself and runner-up from this year's club championship. Our pre-championship round handshake was a tap of the drivers before the match. 

And to leave you with what I teased in the first paragraph as to why I'm less then stellar on holes four, five and six. It's the phenomenon of midpoints. Ever work on a class group project that has a late due date? Everyone's first thought is 'oh we got time, this isn't due for awhile,' but sure it enough the halfway point approaches and people's thought process 'oh crap we have to get this done.' It's the same thing in other aspects of life. In the case of my golf game, I supposed my mind tends to wonder on the fourth and fifth holes, before I realize 'oh this is a game I'm playing, I should turn this around.' (Still happens a lot despite my acknowledgement of this happening.) 

BOOK OF THE WEEK: "The Garden" by Jon Gordon

We really need this book right now. 2020 has taken an emotional and physical toll on us and if it were a rollercoaster, the ride would begin go with multiple drops, but then just as it is appearing to come to end, it has a mind of its own and picks up pace and continue with even bigger loops. "The Garden" helps us all deal with that second coaster surge. 

If there is one thing that 2020 is attempting to throw at us it's the five D's - doubt, distort, discourage, distract and divide. Flashing back to Coach Orion's confidence speech from the mid-90s movie D3: The Mighty Ducks, "it is easy to be confident when you have control of the puck, it very very difficult to keep that confidence when you have to take whatever strange bounces life throws your way." 

Today, we don't have control of the puck, we are on defense, but that does not mean we have to sit back and take whatever 2020 wants to bring next. Murder hornets? Triple E? Second wave of coronavirus? Or maybe now the zombie apocalypse? Whatever it is we can't be afraid to lose, because we really don't have anything to lose. We're playing with house money as long as we utilized the kryptonite to combat the enemy's five D's - trust, speaking the truth, encouragement, focus and unity. 

Everything comes full circle late in the book when the the twins' bring their older brother, who recently was released from rehab after a relapse of his drug addiction. See the big issue here is for both the twins - Jay and Kay - to overcome their struggles and insecurities, they had had to help someone else or they would relapse. 

As Simon Sinek mentioned in one of his great speeches, it is why in the 12-step program of alcoholic anonymous everyone says if you don't reach the last step - the 12th step - a person will always relapse. What is the 12th step? The 12th step is helping someone overcome their battle. That will almost guarantee a person that they will not relapse. We are a social society, it is about helping others, not just ourselves. We feel good when we help one another. 

Additional key points: 

• BEING AUTHENTIC: "It turns out when you know who you truly are, others are more drawn to you and want to know you." 
• "DON'T LISTEN TO PEOPLE:"There are going to come times where you will revisit a past unpleasant experience and those doubts and negative thoughts will come back, but identity shouldn't be defined by others words and actions. 
• IGNORE THE NOISE: Distractions are the enemy of greatness and a distraction is anything that keeps you from what matters most. 

BLOG: "Floor Is Lava"

There is a new game show series on Netflix - The Floor Is Lava. Named after the game 90s kids played on

the playground at recess where they had to traverse the playground structure without touching the ground. It saw a resurgence last year when YouTubers and social media influencers used the phrase in random places, such as Target and Walmart, to their friends to create popular videos. 

Far from a YouTube skit, three teams of 2-3 people compete to make their way across a kitchen, bedroom, office, or basketball where the floor is a covered with red liquid. The team who has the most people finish in the shortest amount of time is the winner. 

The most successful teams have been the ones that collaborated and communicated as a team. Those were the ones that were standing all together at the end. 

It reminded me of the past semester, where communication and collaboration was key - especially late in the semester, the former being extra important. Early in the semester, I was with our intern / men's volleyball contact at a match. Everything was going smoothly until it wasn't. The first set went great, the second set, I witnessed something that I have never witnessed at any event: the laptop decided it wanted to re-start in the middle of the set. 

I could see anxiety beginning to set in on her face. It was exactly like the show The Floor Is Lava when one of the three players slips and falls into the "magma." It was something that I never experienced prior so it was new to me as well, but I realized I couldn't waste time panicking. If I panicked it would increase the intern's stress and anxiety and that was the last thing I wanted. So, I put my quick thinking to work and told her "grab a pen and start writing down everything happening on the court. I'll restart the computer and we'll plug in all the information in between sets." 

Sure we had to inform the coaches of our little computer trouble and why they would not be receiving statistics between sets two and three, but both coaches were appreciative of the communication and acknowledging that stuff happens. 

On a team, everyone has role to play. My role this past semester was the versatile player, being able slide in and provide assistance wherever it was needed. Every Tuesday, I would go over with a colleague where help was needed - whether it was basketball, volleyball, lacrosse, hockey - for the upcoming week. It was the reason I was at the men's volleyball match that night. 

Later on in the semester, when it seemed as though Harvard was hosting everything under the sun with a pair of lacrosse contests, men's ice hockey's ECAC quarterfinal second game and men's basketball's final regular season game of the year against Yale. All four were big games and we were short on staff with our men's lacrosse contact who is also the women's basketball contact with basketball on the road at Yale. But jumping in there assisting on two lacrosse games, then sprinting over to watch the men big up a big win over Yale while writing a wrestling recap in between turned out to be be one the greatest days. (And on a side note, it also turned out to be the last day of athletic events for 2020 - it was right before the COVID-19 outbreak shutdown sports and the country for two months.) 

It's all about the team and your role on the team. Successful teams have great leaders who explain each player's role to them so they understand and get them to buy in. 

BOOK OF THE WEEK: "You Win In The Locker Room First" by Jon Gordon

In a collaborative effort between Jon Gordon and former Atlanta Falcons Head Coach, Mike Smith, the two co-authored book about building winning teams. 

Sports are not about the x's and o's and competitive strategies on the playing surface. It's much more than that. The most successful teams are not only one's that have the best players; the teams that find success are the ones that win inside the locker room. The entire team has to buy into the message the coach is putting out there. 

While reading this book, it reminded me of the past semester and working with the Harvard women's swimming and diving program. From the outside looking in you can identify their philosophy is built around being a team and it trickles down from the coaches to the captains to the rest of the squad. As a coach, you may be recruiting the top athletes, but more-so you want to recruit good people. 

Throughout the course of a long season you're going to be around your teammates a lot, which makes chemistry paramount. If you recruit a superstar but "their personality doesn't mesh with the team culture, then they beat you ever day; whereas if you let that person go on to another program then maybe they beat you once a year." It's building a team that you can win with every day and recruit people who fit the culture you want to set. 

It’s all about people.

Hire good people.
Trust good people.
Follow good people.
Play with good people.
Chat with good people.
Work with good people.
Argue with good people.

The rest will figure itself out.

— Imry Halevi (@imryh) May 29, 2020

Many teams have achieved success using this model. Professionally, one can look at the New England Patriots. For two decades, it's always been the "Patriot Way" of operating and if a superstar player didn't quite fit the mold they were quickly pulled aside and mentored by a veteran (i.e. Randy Moss) or they were shown the door (i.e. Antonio Brown). 

I can point to a few college programs who have achieved team success using this model and I look towards three high-caliber Division III softball programs in the Boston-Providence area - Simmons University, Emmanuel College and Johnson & Wales University. While only one program has won a conference title in the last few years, success is far from just winning championships and receiving accolades.

"Success is defined by setting goals and feeling satisfied those goals were achieved." 

Every team at the beginning of the year - no matter the sport - sets out to win a championship. That's everyone's big goal, so you as the leader of the team need to create smaller incremental goals that will lead to the big goal.  If you do all the little things right, they will eventually lead to bigger and better things - hence the term "Little Drops Make Big Drops" and you will success will be achieved. 

Bonus points that don't quite fit with the rest of the post: 

•  Guarding against complacency - making sure everyone is still hungry and willing to constantly improve and innovate. Nothing kills a team more than getting complacent. 
• Past failure does not determine future failure - reminds me of what longtime Harvard women's basketball coach Kathy Delaney Smith said that the HBS "Sports as a Classroom" panel last fall with "failure being the fuel to success." 
• The purpose of sports is to develop better human beings and who have the ability to change the world. 
• Everyone wants to feel cared for, so get to know your team as people and see them more than just a number. 
• Care about the work you do and the services you provide. The top organizations care deeply about their work. 
• Commitment starts at the top and get out and walk around to meet your employees in their environment. No job is beneath you. 

BLOG: "One Team One Dream"

It was a phrase we used to say in the office to lighten the atmosphere and way to brag about the academic success of our student-athletes.

"We were the Harvard of the NECC" was the phrase used in referencing how Newbury College had more student-athletes on the academic all-conference team than any other member institution. We weren't being serious. Newbury and Harvard could not have been further apart. 

Harvard was the prestigious, well-respected beacon of higher education and students attending were all at the very peak of their high school class. On the athletic side, Harvard - a Division I institution - was rich in it facilities and fitness centers. Compare that to, Newbury where most of the students were first-generation college students, possibly working full-time and attending college in hopes for a better future. To say Newbury, a Division III school and a member of the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC), had very little resources would be an understatement. It had no on-campus athletic facilities and coaches and student-athletes hopped in 15-passenger vans to its home athletic contests at Hellenic College and Pine Manor College. Sometimes home events would be 30 to 45 minutes away in Brockton or Nashua, New Hampshire. 

From the outside looking in, the worlds of Harvard and Newbury could not have been further distanced. Or so we all thought. 

Having spent time at both places, I've come to realize that this is not the case. Harvard may have had better facilities, and students that were present with greater opportunities and tutors growing up, it is not all that different than Newbury.  It's the people that make Harvard great, just like it was the people who made Newbury great. 

At Newbury, the athletic department was a team and we coined the phrases "one team one dream" that we all lived by. It's what drove us. Flash forward to January 2020, I was speaking with an associate athletic director and bring up the phrase and she immediately thought it was a cool phrase. Not too long afterward I brought it up with the associate head coach of women's swimming and diving, she loved it too. 

I thought that was the end of it, but last month after announcing captains for the 2020-21 academic year and posting on Instagram that same associate head coach used the hashtag #oneteamonedream. 

Who would've thought something from a small Division III institution would provide so much inspiration to place like Harvard? But when you really think about it, it's about the people. It doesn't matter what division the school is, if the students get 4.0 GPA and 1600 on the SATs or 2.6 students with a moderate 1000 on the SAT. All that matters is the people who are making that educational experience a positive one. 

A lot of things in life trickle down from the top-tier organizations, but sometimes, the most important things rise from lower organizations. It doesn't matter if it's a Division III school or an Ivy League institution, it's alway come down to the people. Hire, trust, work and play with good people and you will have an outstanding organization. 

Book of the Week: "The Seed" by Jon Gordon

Another Jon Gordon book? Really? I know what you're thinking do I read anything else? Well, yes I do, but Jon's a really good story teller with a great message of remaining positive through difficult situations. Many of his books are quick reads, but they never fail to disappoint and "The Seed" was no different.

We've all found ourselves at a crossroads at work when sometimes that work you are doing is seems to be repetitive and you've lost your "why." Well that is the situation that Josh found himself in when his boss gave him an ultimatum, take two weeks off and when he comes back he should have a decision if he wants to return or move forward.

The book is a reminder how we, as humans, have the tendency to be looking ahead of our current circumstances. Whether it is looking forward towards the future or backwards at the past, happiness will always be evasive. But when you live in the moment, the present, you will always find happiness in your life and work.

When Josh returned to work, eventually under a new moniker - Joshua - as well as promotion, he lived by three principles: 1. never being too busy to help a fellow team member; 2. being the hardest working person on his team; 3. writing and singing words of encouragement to increase team morale.

Every single person has a role to play at work and feel valued for their role. It is what makes a winning team. It is also something, the past few months at Harvard, I've tried to model. Whenever a fellow colleague needed assistance, whether it was at a game or soliciting help for a game, I want to help in any way possible. Most of the time it led to a collaboration of figuring out a workable solution so everyone was as happy as possible.

It is why I had no qualms about working a "triple-header" of two lacrosse matches and a basketball game on what turned out to be the final college game of the spring 2020. It was a long day, but I knew our women's lacrosse contact was appreciative of the assistance, so he could prepare for his men's hockey quarterfinal game later that evening and our men's lacrosse contact, who was with women's basketball.

Once you find out what your role, and it takes awhile to figure out what it is and your role can change, it truly does give you a sense of purpose.