All too often, people want to get to the sexy, cool stuff before really mastering the basics (with devastating results).
At the last Warrior Coaching seminar, we were training on the One on One conversation with patients during the conversion report. It is so easy to get off script and talk too much. Not sure why we do it, but I think it comes from a place of insecurity and so instead of sticking to a script that works, we ad lib, try to make a friend, and lose our authority. Once you do that, followthrough to the care the patient desperately needs becomes touch and go. Let's face it, nobody wants a long term solution, we all want a quick fix but more often than not a long term solution is the only way to solve the problem. If you want your people to commit and stick to a long term solution you are going to have to master some communication fundamentals and avoid being the king of wing, or the queen of quips.
It makes sense when you think about it in the context of athletic performance. I was reading an article written by Greg Glassman, the founder of Crossfit. It was written to Crossfit coaches admonishing them not to get sucked into teaching the fancy cool stuff before having clients mastering the fundamentals. He gave an example from the gymnastics world. To score a 10 out of 10 in a gymnastics competition takes a lot. A 9.7 happens by doing a very difficult routine at an excellent level. To get to 9.9 you have to have an innovative move mastered that nobody else is doing. To get to the last 0.1 you have to do the uncommon at a common level. You cannot hit a 10 in competition without spending years or even decades mastering the fundamentals. Glassmans' point was that it would be ridiculous to try a new move that nobody else can do if you cannot do the basics first. You're not going to try a triple back flip in competition before being able to do a single in training. Can you imagine how that would look? If you have never done a complex move before, are you going to throw it into your Olympic moment? Never!!
How about an endurance event like an Ironman? Would you step into the start chute ready to thrash around a lake with 3000 of your best friends before training, or would it be smarter to master the fundamentals of swim, bike and run before heading down that road?
As an interesting matter of fact most master level coaches recommend 5 years of training before even attempting an Ironman. Many people try to shorten that time line with devastating consequences. Yes you can 'finish' an Ironman on less training time but you end up with a 17 hour Ironman and lots of potential health issues.
A master coach makes simple fundamentals the central point of all their training.
We designed the Warrior Coaching Day 1 to Day 365 expert system for Chiropractors to help them guide their patients to a successful long term solution to their health problems. We encourage all of our clients, Chiropractors and Business Leaders alike to follow a very tight expert system and to become masters of the accompanying scripts. That is not to say that everyone has to do everything exactly the same way but they should start the same way with an expert system that is tried, tested and true. Once our clients have mastered the fundamentals then they can go and tweak the system to make it work best for them. The most successful clients master the fundamentals and then tweak. The clients that struggle the most at the beginning are the ones who tweak first and master second. This may sound obvious but it is uncommon and difficult to surrender to a new system. Most clients want to tweak their old system instead of mastering a new one. The reason why they don't follow the new system is because they are afraid to change and more specifically afraid of what other people are going to think about the changes. Step into fear and make the change.
Make a goal to train on and master every fundamental in your system and you are guaranteed success. Skip these steps or ad lib and you will suffer the consequences and end up with poor, inconsistent growth.
Don't get suckered into the fancy stuff before nailing the basics.
Coach Yurij
Warrior Coaching
Thanks for your creative analogies and heart to serve us through these warrior wisdom's.