Friday, December 30, 2022

The Winning Mindset - Damian Hughes

 Damian Hughes has explored the winning mindset through sports extensively. He cites hundreds of examples from football, rugby, boxing, cricket to tell us how one can make a champion team or rather how one can cultivate a winning mindset or a winning culture. This is exactly what my fiend Ram and I were discussing regarding his team so I was thrilled to pick up this book.



Damian puts his entire learning into five STEPS - Simplicity, Thinking, Emotions, Practical and Stories. Consider this - Coach Bill Shankly tells his team that Chelsea had printed a leaflet which assumed they had already beaten Liverpool and shows them the leaflet.There's nothing much to say. The players play for their pride and win. Shankly had made that leaflet - one copy of that. 

SIMPLICITY

Marco Lippi asking his penalty shooters -  what is your clear intention? Chip off all that is not the core - communicate as you would tweet. John Wooden would not sppeak for no longer than twenty seconds - clear, short instructions -simple messages that stuck. (Seek improvement one day at a time, not quick, big improvement)

Five seconds s the right length- boil your message to a succinct headline and you'll have people noticing your ideas. - Ad professional

Just say as few words as needed to get the message across - "Lads, its Tottenham' were one of his famous motivating words. - Alex Ferguson (don't confuse with too much detail)

Pitch documents for movies - learn to BLUF - Bottom Line Up First. "High concept pitches' (An adventure 65 million years in the making. James Bond with a hat and a whip.)

Grobler and his rowing team - will it make the boat go faster?

THINKING  

I cannot teach anyone anything. I can only make them think - Socrates

How do coaches get players to think for themselves? - Have big chunks of time during the day when all you're doing is thinking - Obama to Cameron. The difference between your best and worst day was at least 50% mental.

Train the player's brains and not their legs -Rinus Michels

Commander's Intent - 

If we do nothing else during tomorrow's mission, we must....

The single most thing we must do tomorrow is...

(the three most important behaviors we must do tomorrow are - sensible hard work, resilience, remaining united)   

CORE - Commitment, Ownership, Responsibility, Personal Excellence - British Cycling

The entire system is to help the riders. As a player ask for what you want. Be accountable. We'll give all the tools but you take responsibility. - Dave Brailsford

Think like a king maker - flip training sessions

Use tripwires to evoke surprise. Create gaps in information that make others think. Challenge the brains. (Achrekar and his coins on stumps)

Van Halen and the M&Ms 

 I guarantee quality work with which you will improve both individually and collectively. - Jose Mourinho

FIFO - Fit In or F Off. Rule two - ou will hear everything from him

Look at the Initiators, Blockers, Adapters and Detached Observers

The Mistakes Club - Mistakes are good. Struggle makes you smarter. Judge mistakes on a scale of 1-10, a prize given to the one who made the most mistakes. Everyone learns.

Sign contracts that mistakes happen, to deliver praise during the struggle,legislate risk

EMOTIONS

Cus D'Amato and Mike Tyson

The Elephant and the Rider - unless we emotionally believe something to be true, we do not fully believe it.

T-CUP - thinking correctly under pressure (knowing how the brain works helps - reptilian brain) 

Stimulus-Peception-Response - Fight-Flight-Freeze

Contain - Entertain - Explain (Wifim)

Power of ritual - - draw a line and ask them to step over the line as a sign of their commitment, eating together

Know your people - Timpson test (details, personal, home, parents, children etc)

Smile - (helps memory, pencil technique and what you remember from the article)

Relationships and 'turning towards bids'. A ratio of 5:1  works magic.

To solve bigger, ambiguous problems, we need to encourage open minds, creativity and hope

Make learning fun - children laugh 400 times a day vs adults who laugh 15 times

Rookie players and AIDS - people they hooked up with,

Th four principles 1) create belonging by establishing a clear, vivid identity 2) create an environment of safety and trust by talking openly about emotions 3) give value and connect in ways beyond business and lead the whole person, not just the player 4) strengthen relationship by sharing control of results through honesty and trust

PRACTICAL

Gary Neville - look at the person next to you whether thay are simply happy to be here. If you don't believe that they want to win as much as you, get up and sit next to a person who does. Playing was not enough, winning for my country was.'

The power of 'yet' - Mindset ad focus on effort

Values Behaviors of great teams -Trust (look at it in detail -c can you point out who you trust the least and then tell them why)  

Change the language - share our experiences, learn

What commitment means - touch the cone, dont stop short because then you will lose discipline, lose penalties, lose points, games, finals.

Self talk- keep it short and chunky, make it vivid, keep it positive

Van Gaal -Work on a player's strong suits and every player is different and warrants a different approach

STORIES

Pep Guardiola- continuous learner, penalty story about the water polo expert 1)  Make up your mind about where to put the ball and do not change the decision 2) keep telling yourself you will score, repeat it a thousand times

Event simulation helped more than Outcome simulation in coping with the problem

Moses story and the waking stick - leading people to the promised land

Mohammed Ali - I am fighting for the disadvantaged

Challenge Plot (David and Goliath, Ali vs Liston), Connection Plot (dedicating this fight to all those who were told you could not do it) and Creativity Plot (how Ali sold his Norton fight to the studio)

Pixar story - One upon a time.....and every day....one day....and because of that.....because of that....until finally

Excellent material for me for my workshop that's coming up next week!        

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