A Story about Shoes, Socks, Basketball and John Wooden
Imagine this. You’re a basketball coach for an elite NBA team. It’s Day 1 of Practice. LeBron James is the newest addition to your team.
The owner walks in. And he instructs you to begin the practice session by teaching your team how to wear their socks and shoes – that includes LeBron and every other player.
Do you do it? Would you do it? Will you look LeBron into his eyes and teach him how to wear his shoes and socks?
Keep reading. This story is really about risk management.
Let’s Time Travel. Let’s go back to 1948 to UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). John Wooden was hired as a basketball coach. He coached the team for the next 27 years till 1975. During that time, the team won 10 NCAA championships. 7 of them in a row. His roster included players like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Sidney Wicks, Henry Bilby, Gail Goodrich, Curtis Rowe, Lynn Shackelford, and more.
Care to guess how he began his first practice every season?
By teaching his players how to put on their socks and shoes a very particular way.
He certainly wasn’t foolish. So why did he do it?
When asked about this, he replied, “The little things matter. All I need is one little wrinkle in one sock to put a blister on one foot–and it could ruin my whole season. I started teaching about shoes and socks early in my career, and I saw that it really did cut down on blisters during the season. That little detail gave us an edge.”
In other words, … he was practicing risk management. Eliminate the problem before it occurs.
As owners, employees and stakeholders, we must continually ask … what little things can we do differently, so it does not ruin many other things?