First Who...Then What.

Get the right people first. 

...Then go somewhere. 

According to James Collins before you go anywhere with an organization, business or in our case team you first need to get people. Not just any people. The right people. It is not about having people in general, it is having the right people that makes the difference. Once you have the right people you can then decide on where to go. In our context, we are not a business with positions like sales associate, manager or CEO. We don’t hire people. In fact, we don’t even cut people from the team as they do in other sports. Instead we have whomever decides to come out for Track and Field/ Cross Country.

However, if we want to go from “Good to Great”, like any team we do need the right people.

"Good to great companies first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus (or in the right seat) and then figured out where to drive it." ---Jim Collins 

Who do we want as part of Track and Field/ Cross Country? Who are the people, the right people we are looking to fill the bus with?

Before I begin an outline of the "right people"...be sure to take note of the broad brushstrokes I will be making. For our purposes, our context as a Track and Field/Cross Country program there are not many people who WON"T be on the bus. We are not trying and will not plan to exclude people. We simply want to put forth some characteristics of those we are hoping to ride the bus with. 

 We want people on the bus who….

1.     Make their education important. We want people riding our bus, to strive to be their best in school. It seems like a grind, but it is the most important thing you can do right now. It is such a blessing to have access to education the way we do in this country. Please value it. This doesn’t mean you will have to always get straight A’s and score high on every test. It means you will show up to your classes, be respectful to your teachers and school staff and seek to do the best you can in every class. This is number one. 

2.     Make the team a priority. Notice we are saying “a priority” not “the priority”. Every student athlete has varying degrees of responsibilities to cover. As we just mentioned, school is a priority. Your family and faith are up there as well. Some of you have other sports or activities. We should be in the mix too. It is essential in this sport to show up. We will bend, adapt and mold to fit your needs and other priorities/ activities , assuming of course you are giving us something in return. Training is showing up, training is something in return. It is possible to be involved in this sport, miss an occasional practice for another important part of your life and still be successful. However, you must make the team a priority by doing the training for this sport on your own. Which brings me to number three...

3. Do the training. It is essential to be successful in this sport. This is not like any other sport. Especially the distance running side. The only way to improve is hard work and consistent effort toward improvement. This means you will need to do something everyday that will help you improve. Somedays it will be a long run, others it will be a hard workout. In between we will have you run some easier days and there will always be required rest. Resting is typically by design and is part of the training. 

4. Are humble, caring, kind and respectful to EVERYONE. It goes without saying that we should do this for our teammates, but really... when you think about it...you represent us when you are a part of the team. You also represent your family. You should treat everyone in the world with dignity, grace and kindness. If you struggle to do this, consider riding a different bus. Your character matters. So be sure to think about the type of person you are. 

5. Trust the process. There is method behind all the madness. Over the course of the last 20 years of Dakota Ridge High School, student-athletes who trusted the process in all facets, Academically, Socially and Athletically, have succeeded in tremendous ways in our program. Student-athletes who trusted coaches and teammates, left here with an incredible experience. 

We need the right people on the bus to go from where we have been to somewhere new. These are the main characteristics of the people on the bus. They should be universal enough to accommodate many different personalities and talent levels while maintaining a central theme among team members.  We will add some explanation and nuance to this topic at team camp coming up next week. 

Speaking of team camp....in preparation for next week....

We will be diving into "Good to Great 2017" as our focus point of discussion. We will discuss as a team the finer points of going good to great. Here are the topics we will be discussing during camp....

First who, Then What?

Confront the Brutal Facts

The Hedgehog Concept

Preserve the Core Stimulate Progress

Audacious Intention's 

You can find our good to great inspiration on www.jimcollins.com or never be afraid to read the book: 

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: why some companies make the leap... and others dont. London: Random House.