All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. The blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose organization.
"This above all, to thine own self be true." - Shakespeare, in Hamlet
Successful teams flourish at the intersection of stability and identity. This principle applies across domains. Unsuccessful businesses chase fads, change accountants, and may assume excessive or ill-advised debt.
“Don’t confuse performance with identity.” Do what you do and do it better.
Coca Cola sells beverages. Their memorable deviation - going all in on "New Coke" - was self-induced error. The standard is the standard; your brand is your brand.
The implications of "to thine own self be true?"
- Fundamentals are foundational.
- Emphasize strengths and limit weaknesses.
- Compete with integrity.
- Identity emerges from discipline.
Challengers improve:
- recruiting or developing better,
- innovating tactically,
- developing culture,
- gaining confidence.
Vulnerability can trigger change, chasing performance and losing identity.
Fear of loss of dominance can trigger new strategies, new rotations, and deviation from proven processes.
In other words, perception can alter process.
During the rise of the New England Patriots, they faced Carolina in the Super Bowl. Bill Belichick's message was that Carolina thinks that they are the new chosen ones. He told the Patriots that they're not us.
There's no "economic moat" surrounding a volleyball program. Public school teams ordinarily can't recruit from private or prep schools. Some sports use some legerdemain to attract AAU transfers or redshirt (wink-wink) middle schoolers.
Stick to the process. Do it better. Do it harder.
Lagniappe. 2018 video explains the Thucydides trap in the context of the past 500 years and possible outcomes. Within the ML12, it's admittedly a tortured analogy for "border wars."
Lagniappe 2. The message? Assess your contact points.
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