Tag Archives: football

Leadership Best Quacktices from Oregon’s Dan Lanning

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Leadership Best Quacktices from Oregon's Dan Lanning

by Braden Kelley

For the first time since 2012 (a couple years before Marcus Mariota won the Heisman Trophy) the University of Oregon football team is ranked number one in the NCAA football rankings and in the pole position in the race to the national championship playoff picture.

Make no mistake, this year’s Oregon Ducks’ football team is full of talent, but in sports like in business, the difference between a winner and a loser is often the character of its leadership and culture.

In the ever-changing landscape of college athletics, the role of a coach extends far beyond strategizing plays and winning games. It involves shaping young athletes into well-rounded individuals equipped not only for their sports careers but for life. Dan Lanning, head coach of the Oregon Ducks football team, exemplifies this human-centered leadership. His approach demonstrates qualities that every leader (whether in sports, business, or any other field) can learn from and apply. Here, as a passionate advocate of human-centered change and innovation, I’ll explore the key facets of Coach Lanning’s leadership that make him effective and inspiring while building a winning culture.

1. Empathy and Understanding

Coach Dan Lanning excels in creating an environment that prioritizes empathy and understanding. He recognizes that every player is unique and has different motivations, challenges, and aspirations. This individual focus allows him to connect with players on a personal level, fostering an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect. Through active listening and consistent communication, Lanning ensures that his athletes feel heard and valued, both on and off the field.

2. Commitment to Development

A true leader invests in the growth and development of their team members. Coach Lanning adopts a holistic approach to player development, emphasizing education, character building, and life skills alongside athletic prowess. By encouraging his players to excel academically and engage with their communities, Lanning instills a sense of responsibility and maturity. This well-rounded development is crucial in preparing athletes for the varied challenges of life.

3. Cultivating a Winning Mindset

While empathy and development are central to Lanning’s approach, he also understands the importance of instilling a competitive spirit. Lanning is adept at fostering a winning mindset among his players without compromising sportsmanship and integrity. He emphasizes setting ambitious goals, maintaining discipline, and embracing the process. This mentality not only contributes to the team’s success on the field but also prepares athletes to tackle future obstacles with resilience and determination. You’ll notice that even in victory, the team’s focus is brought back to the process, brought back to reinforcing a commitment to growth.

4. Innovation and Adaptability

In a rapidly evolving sports landscape, innovation and adaptability are key. Coach Lanning leads by example in embracing change and encouraging creative problem-solving. Whether it’s integrating new training technologies or developing novel game strategies, Lanning shows a willingness to experiment and adapt. This not only keeps his team competitive but also inspires his players to think outside the box and continually evolve. In the video we pick up a team meeting conversation going into the game where they are talking about looking for an opportunity to use a creative formation and play call to steal a first down, and then they perfectly executed it in the game to steal a first down.

5. Building a Strong Team Culture

Coach Lanning understands that success in sports is fundamentally a team effort. He places great emphasis on building a cohesive and inclusive team culture where every member feels they belong. By fostering collaboration and unity, Lanning creates a support system where players are encouraged to look out for each other and celebrate each other’s successes. This strong sense of community enhances team morale and motivates players to perform at their best.

6. Leading by Example

Finally, great leaders lead by example, and Dan Lanning is no exception. His work ethic, commitment, and positive attitude serve as a powerful model for his players. Lanning’s transparency and humility encourage an open dialogue where athletes feel comfortable contributing their own ideas and perspectives. This participative leadership style not only empowers players but also reinforces the collective pursuit of excellence.

Conclusion

Dan Lanning’s greatness as a leader is not measured solely by his achievements with the Oregon Ducks but by the profound impact he has on his players’ lives. His human-centered approach demonstrates that effective leadership is about nurturing potential, fostering growth, and enabling individuals to exceed their expectations. As we consider leadership in any field, Lanning’s example reminds us of the transformative power of empathy, innovation, and community.

And finally, Go Ducks!

p.s. Be sure and follow both my personal account and the Human-Centered Change and Innovation community on LinkedIn.

Image credits: Wikimedia Commons

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Testing My Personal Limits with Innovation

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Physiclo Basketball Resistance Tights

A few months ago I came across an article in Engadget about Physiclo, a startup company launched to provide resistance clothing for athletes. I’m assuming their name Phyisclo is a mashup of the words physical + clothing. Cute.

As a basketball player for which height and youth are not advantages (I’m about 5’8” and a bit past my 21st birthday – just how far past you’ll have to guess), endurance, guile, and a reliable mid-range game are about the only advantages on the court I can hope for.

Given that, in the past I’ve tried ankle weights and weight vests as ways to try and increase my speed, quickness and vertical leaping abilities. From experience I can tell you that ankle weights will injure you and weight vests can be uncomfortable. Jump shoes always seemed dangerous as well, and so after a while I went back to just playing basketball without any gadgets and began readjusting to the idea that I might never be able to increase my athleticism, only my fitness.

But after seeing an article about Physiclo and their resistance clothing for athletes, and thinking through the value proposition both as an athlete and as an innovation professional, I started to think it was worth investigating. I was intrigued because the Physiclo offering is not some wonky gadget that required me to change my behavior, but instead allows me to wear something I was already wearing – compression tights.

So I reached out to the company and began corresponding with the company, and a few weeks later a pair of Physiclo compression tights for me and a pair of Physiclo compression shorts for my grade school AAU basketball playing daughter arrived in the mail (there is your full disclosure). We had every intention of setting a baseline for baseline to baseline speed and vertical leaping ability and to measure every 30 days over a 90 day period, but our local YMCA closed and moved to a new facility after the 30 day measurement and the court size changed and we lost our vertical leap measurement board on the wall. I can tell you that at the 30 day mark we were both getting modestly faster after 30 days, but neither of us recorded any improvement in vertical leaping ability. This was even with a week gap in our workout regimes during that first 30 days because of a family vacation.

Physiclo basketball Dribble

Qualitatively, the first week I wore the Physiclo resistance tights to play 60-90 minutes of basketball (per gym visit) they kicked my ass (to use a technical term) and the same was true after a week of vacation (which ended up meaning nearly a two week gap for me). I got winded easier, my leg muscles fatigued faster, and were more sore afterward than without wearing the Physiclo tights. It took me about a week initially and after vacation to get used to the extra demands they put on my body again. After that, post Physiclo workout fatigue and soreness was the same as without Physiclo, and I felt like my body adjusted and my in game performance only decreased slightly. One other benefit I noticed from Physiclo was that after wearing them for a week or two I was able to power up the hills of downtown Seattle that used to feel like more of a struggle.

My daughter also says she feels the extra effort required when she wears them in practice/training and I’ve seen her get faster in games (when she doesn’t wear her free Physiclo resistance shorts – men’s extra small). She moves better than she used to, and the other girls get tired before she does.

And for me, the impact of wearing my Physiclo resistance tights (sent to me for free) is that I have yet to play without them because every time I think about doing it so I can blow by people, that thought is overpowered by the thought that I won’t get as much out of that workout. So, on goes Physiclo.

I reached out to the Physiclo founders because their invention looked like a potential innovation suitable for profiling to the innovation community here.

As a reminder, my definition of innovation is as follows:

“Innovation transforms the useful seeds of invention into widely-adopted solutions valued above every existing alternative.”

Is Physiclo an innovation?

Absolutely!

For anyone looking to get faster or to get more out of any workout or training that involves running, I can’t think of a more practical and effective training aid. Prices are in the $100-130 range and are available on the Physiclo web site.

Four thumbs up!

Image credit: Physiclo.com

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What April Fool’s Day Teaches Us About Innovation

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What April Fool's Day Teaches Us About Innovation

April Fool’s Day was this week. Did anyone have a good prank played on them or come across a good corporate April Fool’s?

My favorite this year was from my alma mater, the University of Oregon. Go Ducks!

We try to think a little differently at the University of Oregon and specialize in helping the world run a little faster (and more comfortably), and with some of Nike’s founder behind the football team, why shouldn’t they have the world’s most advanced field, say, an LED field?

Watch the video:

The best corporate April Fool’s Day pranks are the ones that are believable and almost seem feasible.

What does this tell us as innovation professionals?

The insight is that the best corporate April Fool’s Day pranks find a resonance point, a place where the outlandish intersects with what people are ready for, what they may actually desire, and what they believe should be possible soon.

Consider asking your innovation teams to design their own April Fool’s Day prank and see where it takes you.

Ask yourself questions like these about their designs:

  • What must be true for this to be possible?
  • What stands in the way of this being possible?
  • What would it take to remove the barriers that are preventing this from being possible?
  • Are our customers truly ready for this?
  • What would it take to prepare them for it?
  • What capabilities do we need to build to prepare for this eventuality?
  • Is this idea more feasible in a different context? (i.e. basketball courts instead of football fields)
  • Etc.

One final thought…

Is there any reason why the field shown in the University of Oregon LED field video couldn’t become a reality?

Why couldn’t it be built out of some of kind of fiber optic material that maintained both the sports performance characteristics and the multi-color transmission capabilities?

Would it be easy to design such a thing? No. But it seems possible, and that’s where innovation begins…

Keep innovating!

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Powering Monday Night Football with Feet?

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Shell Kinetic Soccer Field in BrazilElectricity.

It’s not exactly cheap, and in rapidly modernizing countries (or even U.S. municipalities with budget woes) the idea of illuminating a neighborhood soccer field so kids and adults can play at night (especially in a poorer neighborhood), might seem like an impossibility.

But a couple of weeks ago Pelé (the Brazilian soccer player) and Shell (the global oil – ahem energy company) this week showed off a soccer revolution, a field located in the heart of Morro da Mineira, a Rio de Janeiro favela, capable of capturing the kinetic energy created by the movement of players around the field and combining it with nearby solar power to provide a source of renewable electricity for lighting the field.

The field uses two hundred high-tech, underground tiles to capture the energy created by players running around the field, along with energy created by solar panels next to the field and stores it in batteries next to the field. These new floodlights provides the players with a lit field and everyone else in the favela a safe and secure community area at night.

Until it was redeveloped by Shell, the soccer field was largely unusable and many young people were forced to play in the streets. The Morro da Mineira project shows how creative ideas delivered through committed partnerships can shape neighborhoods and transform communities.

The effort is a component of the Shell #makethefuture program, which endeavors to inspire entrepreneurs and young people to see science and engineering as potential career choices, and hopes to inspire both to use their minds to develop energy solutions for our planet’s future. The kinetic technology used at the soccer field was developed by a UK Shell LiveWIRE grant, which is designed to be a catalyst for young students and entrepreneurs seeking to grow promising ideas into viable and sustainable businesses.

Could we someday see a World Cup match lit by the players or maybe even a Monday Night Football game?

Only time, and a continued commitment to advancements in renewable energy generation and storage, will tell.

For other interesting kinetic energy inventions (and potential innovations), continue reading here (link broken).

Image Source: Treehugger


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