Do you Lose Momentum with Stop AND Go Due to Your Mindset?
Goal: Discuss how mindset can change a strategy
I am a sports fan. I love watching a good game in any sport except hockey. What is interesting is that most of the time I can care less who wins except that I want it to be a great game. I want it to be educational.
Educational?
Recently I enjoyed the NBA playoffs. I especially loved the finals. Although I hated the final result.
Why did I love the playoffs but did not enjoy the result?
Lakers like the Clippers were built to win a championship. They are so loaded with talent that it is very hard to match up against them. Their management has decided that they wanted to win at all cost. NBA is a business and the Lakers organization has treated it that way.
What about the Heat?
Pat Riley was a great coach for the Lakers and has won several championships for them. Similarly he has won several championships for the Heat.
He knows the mindset of the Lakers and was able to put together a great team. In my mind they are an above average team without a true superstar. Jimmy Butler is a great player and comes closest to that label. BUT he is not there quite yet. Pat was willing to pay Andre Iguodala top money to get his help in the finals defensively against Lebron.
Why?
Miami Heat came out against a rival that was suppose to crush them and for the first half of the first game were crushing them. That told me that with key stops and great defense they could make it a great series. BUT they collapsed during the second half and Lakers took game 1.
Next two games it was obvious that the Lakers got the message and played a bit more aggressively. They were helped by two of the key players on Heat’s team getting hurt. So the series went to 2:0 and everyone thought that the Heat would get swept.
This woke Jimmy up and in game 3 he came out aggressively. He attacked without stopping. He was unstoppable and the team won. It was more about his performance than the rest of the team. The team was able to help him but it was mostly Jimmy driving them to success.
At that point it was known that if Jimmy scored more than 30 and others contributed, the Lakers would be in trouble. So they adjusted their strategy.
Lakers decided to make it more difficult for Jimmy to score. They forced him to dish out. This was a critical move and the other players on Heat did not respond as best as they could. Lakers won the game to make it 3 to 1.
In game 5 Jimmy was able to score more than 30 and dish out successfully. It was a close game and Heat won. The Lakers strategy was working and Heat just got a few lucky breaks.
Game 6 was a great game but again this time Butler was not as aggressive as game 3 and the team did not score as well as game 5. Game over and Lakers won their championship.
Why am I going through this series?
I look it as two businesses competing. Each one has a strategy to win. They are forced to adjust and make changes in order to succeed. Sometimes chosen changes work and sometimes they do not. Once you are successful you have to drive that strategy and make adjustments to keep it going.
The Heat and Jimmy Butler went away from his aggressiveness and eventually failed to win. You must make adjustments to keep on the path that is proving successful and force your opponent to fail to stop you.
Even if Heat was totally healthy it would have been a challenge to win BUT I believe the series would have gone down to the wire in game 7. I don’t think Heat had the killer instinct to finish the Lakers this year. I think with minor changes and heathy players they could be a better team next year.
There is a wonderful book called Relentless by Tim S. Grover. It was written by Michael Jordan’s, Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryan’s personal coach and explains the level needed to win very clearly. My recommendation is that the Heat give each player a copy and read it together.
I got to go…my future self alarm went off
Robert Trajkovski is professional with experience in leading people and projects in Steel/ Power, Refining, Chemicals, Industrial Gasses, Software, Consulting and Academia. He has worked for both owners and engineering companies. In addition, he has instructed 73+ courses at several institutions and often offers his courses for free on LinkedIn.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberttrajkovski/
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