Issue 739 - Solutions Are Best When There’s an Early Warning System


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 13	Issue 739
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SOLUTIONS ARE BEST WHEN THERE’S AN EARLY WARNING SYSTEM John Wooden Video Clip (4 min. 06 sec.):Coach Wooden is asked: "Please share how you decided to bring your coaching career to a close." When John Wooden coached at UCLA, new ideas were never rushed onto the court. If a new play was being considered, the process started with debate. In coaches’ meetings, everyone was required to speak up—not to agree, but to explain why the play might not work. Weaknesses were welcome. Silence was not. Next, the coaches themselves went onto the court and ran the play as if they were players. Timing issues surfaced. Spacing felt wrong. Adjustments were made. Only after this back-and-forth—and after concerns had been aired and addressed—was the play introduced to the team. Once the players learned it, Coach Wooden watched closely. If something felt off, it was discussed. If a player had a question, he was encouraged to ask it. By the time the play showed up in a game, the odds were already in its favor. The early warning system had done its job. I researched this idea—why solutions are strongest when concerns are raised early—with several modern leadership experts. Amy C. Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor and leading researcher on team learning, calls this psychological safety. In The Fearless Organization, she writes that high-performing teams are not the ones with fewer problems, but the ones where people feel safe to speak up about concerns, questions, and mistakes before those problems grow. Early warnings allow teams to learn while it’s still inexpensive to do so. That idea shows up in a very different setting as well. Jocko Willink, a retired U.S. Navy SEAL officer, writes in Extreme Ownership that leaders must explain intent and that team members are responsible for asking questions if something doesn’t make sense. In SEAL teams, silence during planning is dangerous. Questions are encouraged before execution, because once action begins, discipline must be absolute. Early warnings save lives. The backgrounds couldn’t be more different—one academic, one military—but the conclusion is the same. Silence doesn’t equal discipline. It equals risk. Coach Wooden understood this long before the research and the books. He didn’t confuse authority with infallibility. He didn’t see questions as resistance. He saw them as protection—protection of the team, the plan, and the people executing it. Solutions work best when problems are surfaced early, debated honestly, and addressed with humility. That’s not a lack of discipline. That’s the highest form of it. Coach gave us three great reminders: "What is right is more important than who is right." "It’s amazing how much can be accomplished if no one is concerned with who gets the credit." "It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts." Reflect on these ideas. How are you doing? Write it down. Share it with someone on your team. Click here for personal development exercise: Issue 739. Click here for Printable Poetry: Issue 739. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Follow @woodenswisdom	COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE The Little Old-Fashioned Church The little old-fashioned church, with the pews that were straight-backed and plain, Where the sunbeams to worship came in through the windows that bore not a stain, And the choir was composed of the good folks who toiled week-days in meadow and lane; The little old-fashioned church that stood on the brow of the hill, With its plain, wooden cross on the peak, an emblem of love and good will, Of the Christ who has died for us all — in fancy I gaze at it still. I wish I could go there again and list to the preacher who told Of the wonderful joys that await us when God calls us into His fold, Who pictured a Heaven unto us as a city with pavements of gold. The little old-fashioned church with never a towering spire, With never a sign of great wealth, and the people who sang in the choir Giving their music for love of the cause and not for the sake of their hire. Perhaps I am wrong or old-fashioned, but the little, gray church on the hill, Where only God's mercy and love were e'er preached, the want in my life seemed to fill, And I don't get the comfort I seek from the church of today with its frill. Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
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