Page 223 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Seek Significant Change
answers has stopped asking questions. When you’ve asked, “How 205
can I help our team to improve?” a thousand times, ask it again.

Welcome Contrary Ideas, but Not Contrarians.
New ideas and perspective from those under your leadership are
essential for achieving and maintaining a competitive edge. Wel-
come those people strong enough to speak up and offer alternatives
and ideas. Beware those who do it in a manner that crosses the line,
who challenge your overall philosophy or your leadership itself. Look
for solid leaders like coaches Crum, Powell, Norman, and Cunning-
ham, who knew how to engage in a robust exchange of ideas and
opinion without causing disruption or challenging authority.

ON WOODEN
Gary Cunningham: UCLA Varsity, 1960–1962;
Assistant Coach, 1966–1975; six national championships

BE WILLING TO CHANGE
Coach Wooden was strongly opposed, in principle, to the 3–2
zone defense—a half-court defensive system. Nevertheless,
Denny Crum and I, assistant coaches, thought it could be
very effective for the Bruins to install it. We recommended
that he make the change.
Keep in mind, at this point Coach Wooden’s teams had just
won five national championships in six years. He could easily
have told us, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” However, Coach was
always willing to listen, to evaluate new ideas, to seek ways to
improve our team. He was never satisfied—never satisfied.