Case Study - Building a Program Without Self-Entitlement - Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch - Part 10

Published: Fri, 09/02/16

 
When NFL Pro-Bowler Joe Ehrmann lost his little brother Billy to a tragic fight with cancer, his introspection led to the realization that life is all about 2 things:
1 - Relationships
​​​​​​​2 - Working for a cause bigger than yourself
Self-entitlement is a direct result of a focus that is opposite of those 2 values. It is no accident that the first and last components of this 10 part series on building championship culture involve creating a team-first and others-first environment. It is where everything starts and ends.
 
The Culture Bus
Before we jump into this week's post - Thank you to the many 'Yes' Responses from last week's email to follow my journey working to turn around the culture of the local high school lacrosse team I help coach. It's not too late for you to follow along - just reply 'YES' to this email. Our fall lacrosse season gets started in a few weeks so the journey is about to begin.
A reminder of what is going to happen:
I am going to keep detailed notes of my experiences and share videos on Facebook Live, including both ideas I try that work, and ones that bomb. If you would like to follow along and learn from my successes and mistakes, and share your stories in a private Facebook group - reply to this email and say 'Yes.' Then I'll add you to our culture email list and keep you posted. 
IT'S GREAT TO LEARN AND READ ABOUT CULTURE - BUT IT IS HARD WORK TO IMPLEMENT IT.  LET'S DO THIS TOGETHER - JUST PICTURE THE JOY OF COACHING ON A TEAM WITH AWESOME CULTURE.
JUST SAY 'YES' AND WE'LL GET STARTED.
 
Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch Part 10 - Case Study - Building a Program Without Self-Entitlement
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John Doss is the head coach of Brownsburg Lacrosse, which is a program located in a suburb of Indianapolis. John understands the importance of selflessness in building a championship culture. So he set out to look for a way to build this into his culture, both on and off the field. What his team came up with is brilliant. The best way to describe their Mission 2 Assist program is to share their value statement:

What do we value at Brownsburg Lacrosse?

On the field, we all want to score goals, but what we REALLY VALUE are the plays that lead up to those goals. The unselfish pass to an open teammate. The “hockey assist” pass that leads to that pass. A hard fought ground ball possession. Tenacious defense that leads to a big takeaway. A critical save and quick clear that starts a fast break. That’s what we value on the field.

Off the field we value gratitude and servanthood. We appreciate the fact that we get to play a game we love and know that there are those that are not so fortunate. Because of this, we want to help others that cannot play lacrosse or cannot play lacrosse in the same manner that we do.

Why are we telling you this? Well, we found out that there is a national wheelchair lacrosse league and a local group is raising money to start a team here in Indianapolis. We want to merge our values to help them. This is a group of athletes and competitors just like us and all they want to do is compete, just like we do. 


How did they accomplish this? They tracked the plays they value, these “assists” that led to goals, over the course of their season. Then they got sponsors to reward those “assists”. John describes how they set this up in WYC Podcast Episode 81, check out all of the details here: Link to show notes and episode
They used the walk-a-thon type forms to fundraise – but used assists instead of goals as the pledge criteria. By the end of the season they raised almost $10k for the Wheelchair Lacrosse Organization.

Check out the homepage for The Mission 2 Assist program to see short videos on their program and for a link to a video that describes WLUSA- the Wheelchair Lacrosse Organization: www.bblaxassist.com

Next week we'll start up a new series, remember if you want to jump on The Culture Bus - just reply 'Yes' to this email.

Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch - 10 part series
  1. Team first - Link to post
  2. Team Cornerstones - Link to post
  3. Positive Environment - Which dog are you feeding? - Link to post
  4. Recognition & Rewards - Link to post
  5. Captains - Link to post
  6. Parents - Link to post
  7. Building Trust - Link to post
  8. Seek First to Understand - Link to post
  9. Coaching your own kid - Link to post
  10. Perspective & Giving Back
 
NEW WYC PODCASTS
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WYC 089 – Performance Training – Former NFL wide receiver Corey Bridges talks training athletes – from NFL quarterbacks to Olympic ping pong players
Corey Bridges is a former NFL wide receiver who played for the Bears, Vikings, and Browns. He also had an outstanding football, track and baseball career at Newnan High School and was a football and track star at the University of South Carolina, including many All-SEC honors, including SEC 60 meter sprint champion. He has spent the last 10 years training athletes from the youth to the professional level. Corey founded C4 Performance, Personal and Professional Sports Performance Specialist. C4 specializes in the following: Toning & Sculpting; Flexibility/Stability/Mobility; Body Fat Reduction; Stretching; Injury Preventive Program (FMS); Strength and Conditioning; and Speed Training. He was recently featured in a Sports Illustrated article leading up the the Olympics: si.com/vault/2016/03/29/ping-pong-physicality.
Go to podcast episode
 
I love hearing your stories and experiences, both the positive ones and frustrations you're having - just reply to this email and it goes straight to my inbox.
Make winning the right way your habit starting today,
​Craig
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Craig Haworth is the founder of Winning Youth Coaching, a site dedicated to helping coaches and parents make youth sports an awesome experience for the youth and the parents.  He interviews coaches from around the world and posts them on his podcast, which currently has over 85 interviews and has been downloaded over 85,000 times. He writes a weekly note to coaches and parents. He is married to his high-school sweetheart and they share the blessing of 3 children and live in Franklin, TN. You can sign-up for his weekly note here, find him on twitter at @craighaworth1, or visit his website winningyouthcoaching.com.
"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men"
- Frederick Douglass