Continuous Quality Improvement

Happy Labor Day! I hope you are all getting a well deserved break from the break neck speed of life and are enjoying the beautiful weather we are experiencing!

For the last week, social media has been full of posts of students’ first days back to school. Some are changing schools, some are going from high school to college, but all are advancing to a higher level of learning than they were the year before. Students are expected to learn more advanced things each year. This is how education has looked forever and everyone seems to accept this as reality.

Former basketball trainer and now well known motivational speaker Alan Stein Jr. wrote a very interesting article about this topic last week. He mentioned how students advance a grade level every year in school unless there is a severe deficiency of some sort like poor grades, low attendance, or some other issue.

The thesis of Stein’s article asked about adults….he wonders why many adults choose to stay at the same level and not move forward, despite opportunities to improve themselves. He asks, “why don’t more people aim for consistent mental, emotional, and physical growth, improvement, and development? Imagine how much more fulfilled adults would feel if they forced themselves to move forward to the ‘next grade’!”

I totally agree with Alan’s premise. After working with adults for many years in a variety of avenues, often times they have trouble identifying areas that could be improved upon, accepting that it is ok to have an area of need, and then putting together a plan for improvement. Adults at times get defensive when questions are asked about a particular strategy or technique that is being used and find excuses to not trying something new that might work better. We expect kids to be able to process these questions with some assistance, and we adults should be able to make this work as well! It’s normal to not be thrilled to have what we do be questioned but we should have an open mind about something different and be willing to look at all sides of something if we are truly trying to do the right things.

In my mind, it ultimately comes down to everyone having a growth mindset with regards to life and to always be looking for ways to improve. One of my favorite coaching phrases is “you are either getting better or getting worse-you are not staying the same.” If you think of having to pick one of the other of these, we would all pick getting better.

So the key is committing to what my long time friend and coaching colleague Leo Hupke from Cherokee called CQI-Continuous Quality Improvement. What does it take to find consistent improvement in life? Here are a few ideas:

1. Know what your current status is. Be honest with yourself and self evaluate what you are doing well and what you could improve on. If needed, ask a friend or colleague to give you an honest assessment of where you are at and don’t take anything that is said personally. Having a true picture of where we are at is huge if we want to improve.

2. Find a coach/mentor. Students in school have teachers, administrators, and many other adults to help them. Adults shouldn’t feel like they are in this alone. Find an accountability partner who will be honest with you, encourage you, and ask questions to keep pushing you forward. We all need that!

3. Be a student of learning. I always feel like leaders should be learners. Find ways to learn something new. Read, reach out to others in your area, ask questions, and be willing to try new things.

4. Look for constant feedback. This feedback is self feedback-honestly evaluating your status, but could also include asking others for feedback. If taken the right way, feedback is a huge learning tool. When I was coaching, I constantly was listening to what others had to say. That could be assistants, administrators, players, and yes, even parents. I didn’t always agree with feedback but I always listened and many times took the feedback under consideration and used some of the ideas. If it helped me or my teams improve, it was well worth listening to!

As Stein says at the end of his post, “imagine how much more fulfilled adults would feel if they forced themselves to move forward to the ‘next grade”’! I think that is an important part of following the CQI model. It makes life more satisfying and makes you a role model for others around you to follow. What about you…are you a life long learner and someone always trying to get better? The effort is well worth it! Have a great week!

Coach K