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Issue 608 - "Diligent Debate Delivers Discovery" (Liz Wiseman)


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 12	Issue 608
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"DILIGENT DEBATE DELIVERS DISCOVERY" (LIZ WISEMAN) John Wooden Video Clip (2 min. 22 sec.): Coach Wooden is asked: "Tell us how you went about preparing for UCLA practices." Liz Wiseman is a bestselling author, researcher, and elite leadership coach. In her New York Times bestseller, Multipliers: she researched over 150 leaders worldwide. In her book she identifies a quality that great leaders have in common with John Wooden: They are great debate makers. She put it this way: "Great Leaders make important decisions by first engaging people in debate. They identify the decision-critical data that needs to be gathered and analyzed prior to the debate. They ask others to come to the debate armed with relevant information, so they are prepared to contribute. They ask questions that challenge conventional thinking. They ask questions that unearth the assumptions that are holding the organization back. They ask the questions that cause the team to think harder and to dig deeper. They ask for evidence. They aren’t overly swayed by opinion and emotional arguments; they continue to ask for evidence that would confirm a point of view. And they ask for evidence that might suggest an alternative point of view. They pursue all sides of the issue." In the book, "Wooden on Leadership" by John Wooden and Steve Jamison, former assistant coach Gary Cunningham described Coach Wooden this way: "He did not want "yes men" around him. We were encouraged to argue our points, knowing he’d come back at us strong with his own opinions. That was his way of testing how much we believed in what we were telling him and how much we knew about it. For example, we’d debate the pivot—what was the best way to do it—for 45 minutes during a morning meeting. But he listened with an open mind, let us contribute—insisted on it. During those meetings, we didn’t just sit and take notes. He wanted interaction, ideas back and forth. And he got it." Are you a great debate maker or just a decision maker? Click here for personal development exercise: Issue 608. Click here for Printable Poetry: Issue 608. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Follow @woodenswisdom	COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE Roses When God first viewed the rose He'd made He smiled, and thought it passing fair; Upon the bloom His hands He laid, And gently blessed each petal there. He summoned in His artists then And bade them paint, as ne'er before, Each petal, so that earthly men Might love the rose for evermore. With Heavenly brushes they began And one with red limned every leaf, To signify the love of man; The first rose, white, betokened grief; 'My rose shall deck the bride,' one said And so in pink he dipped his brush, 'And it shall smile beside the dead To typify the faded blush.' And then they came unto His throne And laid the roses at His feet, The crimson bud, the bloom full blown, Filling the air with fragrance sweet. 'Well done, well done!' the Master spake; 'Henceforth the rose shall bloom on earth: One fairer blossom I will make,' And then a little babe had birth. On earth a loving mother lay Within a rose-decked room and smiled, But from the blossoms turned away To gently kiss her little child, And then she murmured soft and low, 'For beauty, here, a mother seeks. None but the Master made, I know, The roses in a baby's cheeks.' Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
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