Issue 716 - "2025: Cooperation: Seven Levels of Collaboration (Part One)"


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 13	Issue 716
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"2025: COOPERATION: SEVEN LEVELS OF COLLABORATION (PART ONE)" John Wooden Video Clip (46 sec.): Coach Wooden is asked: "What is the most important thing your father taught you?" In John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success, one of the foundational qualities he believed was needed was cooperation. Coach defined cooperation this way: "With all levels of your coworkers. Listen if you want to be heard. Be interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way." The idea of being interested in finding the best way—not in having your own way—happens when you do a great job of collaboration. There are seven levels of collaborators. Level One: The Non-Collaborator The non collaborator is a leader who creates an organizational environment where he or she will almost always ask, "Are there any questions?" or "Does anybody have any new ideas?" But everybody in the group is afraid to speak up because they don’t want to be labeled as troublemakers. They believe that in this leader’s organization, the best way to move up the food chain is to go along to get along. This style is a carryover from the factories of the industrial era but is not sustainable in today’s environment, where creativity and critical thinking have become not just important but necessary to stay in business. This became more important with the advance of technology, and now with artificial intelligence it becomes even more critical. The non-collaborator can instantly improve if they follow the advice Joshua Wooden gave his son: "You’ll never know a thing you didn’t learn from somebody else." And one of John Wooden’s favorite quotes: "Others, too, have brains." The non-collaborator simply has to: "Be more interested in bringing out the genius in others than showing everybody how smart they are." What are you interested in? Click here for personal development exercise: Issue 716. Click here for Printable Poetry: Issue 716. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Follow @woodenswisdom	COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE Henry Ford’s Offhand Way Speaking of Henry Ford's purchase of a million dollars' worth of city bonds, Controller Engel said; 'He talked about buying those bonds exactly as I would talk about buying a sack of peanuts.' — News item. There may be some of us who'd stop and scratch our heads awhile Before we'd spend a million of our hard earned little pile; And some of us perhaps might want to ponder on the deal, To see the goods before we'd buy, to know that they were real, I'm sure that I should hesitate and count once more my hoard Before I'd write a check like that, but not so Henry Ford. He merely yawned and stretched a bit, and then said : 'By the way, A million dollars' worth of bonds, I guess, will do today.' And some of us there are who might regret it all our lives If we should do a trick like that and not consult our wives. Before we'd spend a million bones I think we'd hem and haw And then decide to wait a day and put it up to Maw. 'm sure I shouldn't spend that much upon my own accord, I'd be afraid of what she'd say, but not so Henry Ford. He just looked through the window at the autumn tints of earth And said: 'Those bonds you spoke about. I'll take a million's worth.' And some of us, perhaps, before we'd part with such a bunch Would make the salesman take us out and blow us off to lunch; We'd have him bowing down to us and tapping at our door, And make him say a dozen times the things he'd said before. I'm sure before he closed with me and captured his reward I'd make him work a month or two, but not so Henry Ford. He merely said, the while he flicked from off his coat a speck: 'Send up a million dollars' worth. I'll write you out a check.' Who knows but what he thought about the song birds on the farm, And looked away as though to see the trees in autumn's charm? Perhaps he saw the pumpkins ripe and fodder in the shock And watched a little feller who was driving home the stock. While the agent's heart was beating he was calm as he could be, But perhaps he saw a little boy with patches on his knee, Years and miles away from business, in the town that gave him birth, Who never dreamed he'd buy of bonds a million dollars' worth. Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
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