Organizing Genius focuses on groups such as the Manhattan Project, Walt Disney’s studio, Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign team, and Xerox Corporation’ PARC group which developed the mouse, laser printers and the graphics interface that was the basis for both Apple and Microsoft Windows software. The book’s case studies are fascinating reading for any coach interested in improving teams. To provide a taste of the book, I selected four lessons that are also found in coaching philosophies of Shanahan and Torre, two very different coaches, who achieved success.
 LESSON 1: Greatness starts with great people.
Bennis & Biederman quote Bob Taylor, the leader of PARC, who said” you can’t pile together enough good people to make a great one.” Shanahan and Torre both talk about the effort required to identify talent. According to Shanahan, the Broncos weren’t looking for a running back in the 1995 draft. Nonetheless, when a talent they had studied extensively and identified as a likely third round pick was still available in the sixth round, they did not hesitate to draft Terrell Davis, who went on to win the National Football League’s most valuable player award.
Joe Torre talks about making a decision between two veteran pitchers, local hero pitcher David Wells and Roger Clemens. A controversial trade came down to a belief that Clemens was a better talent, and Clemens played a key role in New York’s world championship. Coaches know that an excellent system can produce a very good team (Princeton basketball, for example), but to produce a truly great team, you need superb talent.
LESSON 2: Every great group has a strong leader.
Mike Shanahan and Joe Torre have a very different interpersonal and management/ coaching styles, but both succeed by focusing on their strengths. Shanahan is intense and driven. John Elway describes Shanahan as “a classic grinder. Classic. He never lets up. His thumb pushes on you harder and harder when you win. When you lose surprisingly enough, he pulls it back, but when you win there is no letup.”
Torre, perhaps due to baseball’s focus on individuals, spends a great deal of time massaging egos, communicating clearly and having a good relationship with his players so they will accept his decisions to sit them down when he needs to. His strength is evident in his calm response to the unique craziness surrounding a New York team and his willingness to stand behind tough personnel decisions.
The Organizing Genius authors summarize the leader strength issue by saying, “the leader has to be worthy of the group. He or she must warrant the respect of people…Everyone must have complete faith in the leader’s instincts…”
LESSON 3: Great groups are optimistic, not realistic.
There is a youthful energy in great groups, who “don’t yet know what they can’t do” Bennis and Bierman explain. In other words, “great things are accomplished by talented people who think they will accomplish them.” Shanahan describes his experience as the offensive coordinator to head Coach George Seifert of the San Francisco 49ers. After a bad loss, Shanahan and his family drove home listening to a sport radio poll saying that 76 percent of the callers felt Shanahan should be fired, and 80 percent felt Seifert should be fired.
At a press conference the next day, Seifert was asked about the poll, and he said he wanted to thank the 20 percent who supported him! Seifert, Shanahan and the 49ers went on to win the Super Bowl that year, despite all the doubters. The St. Louis Rams Super Bowl victory is another example of unrealistic optimism bearing fruit. Numerous Olympic coaches have seen that optimism doesn’t replace talent, but pessimism will prevent talent from blooming.
LESSON 4: The leaders of great groups give them what they need and free them from distraction.
Joe Torre describes acting as a buffer between the players and a number of things that could complicate their lives or interfere with their performance, including things like the media, family, and even occasionally, Yankee owner George Steinbrenner. Mike Shanahan talks similarly of attending to many small details for the Broncos that give the players the impression that no organization does a better job for their players. Shanahan worries about details such as the type of food at the breakfast table, giving athletes’ vouchers for two pay TV movies at their hotel to keep them from going out, and like Torre, buffering the athletes from external distractions.
One highly successful Olympic coach had a similar Olympic Games strategy with his staff, permitting no logistics questions among staff when athletes were present. By only talking about certainties in front of athletes, he figured that the athletes would not start thinking about “what if” scenarios regarding logistics or other issues over which they had no control. Organizing Genius describes the simple, focused environment that results when all extraneous factors are removed.
Can you create and coach a great team?
Books by successful coaches such as Shanahan and Torre are valuable tools for other coaches. Organizing Genius is also a gold mine of ideas for coaches looking to push teams to a higher level. While Joe Torre, Mike Shanahan, and Walt Disney are three very different types of leaders, the common themes show that there clearly are some right and wrong ways to go about achieving greatness.
Greatness never just happens. In every case:
- Being great is an explicit goal of a group or team that will not accept simply being good.
- There is an incredible drive to overcome obstacles that usually start at the top.
- There is a talent pool that allows the coach to implement a good system.
- The team describes this focused, intense effort as the best thing they have ever done.
- The majority of the team sees the stress and strain of competing as an enjoyable challenge; the great groups always have fun as they pursue greatness.
Not everyone is lucky enough to have all the ingredients of a great team, but any coach would benefit by identifying the ingredients you do and don’t have, adding as many elements as you can and taking a shot at the goal of team excellence. As hockey great Wayne Gretsky said, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”
Books Cited:
Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration. Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward Biederman. 1997. Addison-Wesley Publishing.
Think Like a Champion: Building Success One Victory at a Time. Mike Shanahan with Adam Shefter. 1999. Harper Business.
Joe Torre’s Ground Rules for Winners. Joe Torre with Henry Dreher. 1999 Hyperion Books. |