Sustained Excellence
Over the years I have been fascinated by sustained excellence. Championship teams and organizations are the ones that can repeat their success. They are not one shot wonders. I believe the New England Patriots epitomize this. I am not a Patriots fans or someone who has jumped on the bandwagon. I have carefully studied their approach and it is classically characteristic of a championship organization. Watching about one quarter of last nights Patriot game versus the Raiders was very interesting. The announcers were very effusive in their praise of the Raiders talent, especially Randy Moss. The fallacy of this is that a team wins, not an individual. The patriots have a system. That system dictates everything they do. Talent ID and acquisition are the cornerstone. They get players who fit their system. They have a plan, they stick to it and they execute it. They put a premium on coaching and teaching. Because they have a system when coaches leave that does not have a negative effect. They have an excellent conditioning program that is based on sound principles not fads. Sustained excellence does not happen by chance!
posted by Vern Gambetta @ 9/10/2005 08:19:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I don't think character is mentioned often enough. When I think of the Patriots, I think of high character guys. I don't hear of many of their players trying to take most of the credit, or blame. Talent is important, but having the character to use it and fit into a team are as, if not more, important.
I think one of the early franchises to demonstrate the importance of a system were the Baltimore Orioles. In fact in Baltimore it was known for years as the "Oriole Way". The main principal was to find the right players and train them the same way from Rookie Ball up through the Majors. It was very detail oriented. Every Oriole in the major leagues had learned how to play almost every possible scenario and they had been rehearsed repeatedly through the minor leagues. The "Oriole Way" produced the best winning percentage in baseball from 1966 into the mid 80's. Obviuosly things changed with the advent of free agency. But any Baltimore fan would say the true change came when ownership changed. The new ownership -- Peter Angelos and family -- believed the only way to create a winner was to buy talent. That has led to mediocre performance over the last 15 to 20 years. There was a book written about 15 years ago about the Oriole Way. I'm sure it is out of print now.
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