33 STRATEGIES OF SPORTS: THE COUNTER BALANCE STRATEGY

Ultimately, sports is a visceral experience.  There is only winning and losing.  With all the comfortable, yet useless things we have, sports may be the last frontier that emotionally reminds us of life and death.  You're alive now.  And you will fight to stay alive until you're dead.  That is life, in a nutshell.  Athletes usually don't die when they lose (unless they play for a soccer team in Central America).  But the feeling and emotion of the competition is similar.  That's why it's so gratifying to win and so gut wrenching to lose.  And why sports can be so damn satisfying to watch.

We envy athletes for many reasons.  Their pay checks, of course.  Their ability to get laid whenever they please.  But ultimately, what we admire most is something called "presence of mind".  The ability to keep your cool no matter what's going on - even when a mob of 30,000 people screams for your head.  What do you do?  If you can keep your presence of mind and never panic, you become god-like in your demeanor.  And pay checks and unlimited sex always come to god-like people (but be careful, so does Aids, as Magic Johnson found out).

THE DETACHED BUDDHA TACTIC

On May 13, 2004, the Los Angeles Lakers and defending champions San Antonio Spurs were engaged in a brutal game 5 at the Alamo Dome in the Western Conference Semi-Finals.  They were even at 2-2.  The Lakers lost the previous year to the Spurs in 6 games.  However, this Lakers team had recruited point guard Gary Payton and Karl Malone to counter the unbeatable trifecta of  Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli and Tim Duncan.  And they were well on their way to victory.  In the fourth quarter, Los Angeles was up by 16 points and the crowd in San Antonio was silent.  With the deadly combo of Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, the Spurs had no chance of coming back.

But like all Lakers teams, they fell asleep and by the final seconds the Spurs were only down one point.  The crowd was alive once more like an awakened monster.  But the Lakers were still up 72-71 with several seconds left.  One more defensive stop and they would go home victorious.

But they failed again, allowing Tim Duncan a desperation shot in the final seconds.  The building erupted like the wrong neighborhood of Jurassic Park.  It was earsplitting in the Alamo Dome.   The Spurs were up 72-71 with 0.4 seconds left.  The Lakers were fucked.

Everyone looked to coach Phil Jackson, who was yawning and disinterested.  He drew a play for a lob pass to Shaq and left Kobe as a second option, Malone as a third, Derek Fisher as a fourth.  Gary Payton would take the inbound pass.  However, the lob pass was really the only hope.  It was the only play that could be pulled off quickly enough.

The Spurs were aware of this, which is why they blanketed Shaq.  .  Plus, it was impossible for Payton to concentrate with 30,000 people screaming.  He called a time out.

Back on the sidelines, Jackson looked like he was nearly asleep at the DMV.  He insisted on the same play.  Lob pass to Shaq, Kobe and Malone as an alternative.  But again Payton had no one to pass the ball to.  With every option well covered, Payton was forced to call another time out.  Their last.

This time, Jackson looked slightly irritated.  It seemed like he just wanted the game to be over, fly back to his house in Playa Del Rey and hang out with his girlfriend, Jeannie Buss.  Derek Fisher, the back up point guard at the time, volunteered to Gary Payton that he might have enough space to for one shot.  Fisher was the least covered of the four.  When Payton looked at Jackson, the illusive coach didn't encourage or discourage the idea.  He shrugged.  Did he even hear Fisher's idea?  You couldn't hear your own thoughts in this bloodthirsty madness of a crowd.

Didn't matter.  The game was over.  What did Payton have to lose?  Perhaps he was too focused on Shaq and Kobe and not all his options.  He didn't even glance at Shaq or Kobe this time.  Without hesitation, he kicked the ball out to Fisher.  The moment the ball touched Fisher's fingertips, the milliseconds ticked off.  0.3.  Fisher turns around.  0.2.  Fisher in a shooting motion.  0.1.  Fisher let's go of the ball.  0.0.  Buzzer.  EEEEENNNNNNGGGGGGGG!

And like that, 30,000 Spurs fans looked like they swallowed sand.  73-72 Lakers.  Game over.  The T-Rex silently went back to sleep.  A miraculous win for the Lakers.  Or was it?

INTERPRETATION

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called this defeat the most cruel of his career.  In fact, Popovich had battled against Phil Jackson's Lakers for several years now and rarely found himself on the winning end.  The 0.4 second victory might have been Phil Jackson's most incredulous feat, but there were others.

In Game 4 of 2002 Western Conference Finals, Robert Horry put up the game winning shot against the more formidable Sacramento Kings to win 100-99 at the buzzer.

In Game 6 of the 1997 Finals, Steve Kerr delivered the final daggers against the Utah Jazz to take their fifth championship.

On June 5, 2000, Phil Jackson's Lakers were down 15 points with less than 10 minutes against the unbreakable Portland Trailblazers.  Until Brian Shaw sparked a 15-0 run to win the game and take the Lakers to the first of 3 consecutive titles.

Most NBA coaches have great basketball minds and formulate great strategies against their opponents.  Until the moment there's 11 seconds left in a game.  This is when most coaches collapse and lose their cool.  They operate out of fear and do something uncharacteristic.  The pressure is too much.

Jackson teaches his players to face their fears by applying a lot of trust in them.  He insists that basketball is very simple.  It's not rocket science.  When a game starts, Jackson does not believe his guys need more knowledge or intellect, but resolve and mental toughness.  He knows the only way to achieve this is for his players to make their own decisions.  This makes them mentally tough and wards off the usual emotions that come with stressful moments -- like doubt, cautiousness and fear.

Resolve is the first thing we lose in these moments but as Robert Greene says, "being careful is not what we need, what we need is double the resolve, an intensification of confidence, that will serve as a counter-balance... Find joy in attack mode.  Your momentum will carry your through".

KEYS TO ENGAGEMENT

Think about it.  Routine makes you feel safe.  That's why they're routines.  Predictability makes you feel safe.  Everything about society today is about safety and comfort.  You are led to believe that safety and comfort brings you joy.  Until you face something truly dangerous.  Your dependable routine suddenly evaporates.  You become confused.  You feel betrayed.  What happened to those dependable routines?  You realize they were just a mirage.

Your mind and collection of thoughts feel very strong, but in reality, they're just information.  Your mind has no strength.  Your emotions have the real strength.  They are what ultimately controls you.  But they are very difficult to tame, because you don't see the need for it.

Instead of learning to tame this stallion-like emotional parts of us, we fill the void by collecting more information and being under the impression this will protect us in times of danger of conflict.  The problem is, our weak mind panics and our untamed emotions take over.  Then, we topple.

The only way to tame your emotions is by training it like a dog.  Your dog won't learn to sit unless you teach it to.  Your dog won't respect you unless you command it.  Your emotions are not unlike this.  Most of us leave emotions untamed and react to them at will.  That's why, like a dog that humps the first thing in its path, emotion always pops up at the wrong time.  But if you learn how to train it, the dog will remain disciplined and only do what you tell it -- and protect you when you need it.

The best way to train your emotions is by constantly exposing it to conflict -- by not avoiding conflict, like most people, but facing it.  Since conquering your fears give you confidence.  Avoiding them makes you weak.

Phil Jackson learned how to deal with conflict when he coached in the Baloncesto Superior Nacional, the Puerto Rican basketball league.   A league where the refs would sometimes pull a knife on a player.  Chicken blood was spilled on the side of your basket to curse you.  If you were a road team and about to win, you had to run to the parking lot for fear the home crowd would turn into a violent mob and chase after you and your teammates.  Planning quick exits after a victory was part of the game plan.

After this life or death experience, anything else Jackson dealt with was peanuts.  The Shaq and Kobe drama.  Kobe's rape trial in Colorado.  Jackson's own turmoil with Jerry Krause, the owner of the Chicago Bulls.  Being down 24 points during a playoff game or a championship game.  It was never a big deal.  When everything appeared like it was going to fall apart, his players looked to Phil Jackson and saw a man who was calm and unbothered.  Their reaction?  They became relaxed too.  If coach isn't bothered by it, why should we be?  Perhaps our fear of the situation is not justified.  The coach trusts us so why shouldn't we trust ourselves?  Let's go win this.  Phil Jackson understood that his players had to be self-reliant to become successful.  Just like all of us.  When we're confident and make decisions, we feel good about ourselves and get things done.  When we're indecisive, we're unattractive and make people nervous.

We panic during stressful situations because we experience "fight or flight" instinct.  What animals feel when their life is threatened.  But we are so in denial of death that we experience "fight or flight" when we get overcharged by our cell phone company or we ask the boss for a raise or when our car breaks down.  Whenever our routine is broken, our emotions believe it is threatening our lives and we panic.

The truth is, your life is always threatened.  You could be dead at any moment for any variety of reasons.  What you believe to be safety is really an illusion.  You're lucky to be alive.  So you see, nothing you deal with should be that strenuous.  Idiot colleagues at your job.  Relatives that talk down on you.  A jerk that you must break up with.   Anything that must be overcome is not a big deal.  Because you are alive now.  At this moment.  And that's all the really matters.  Everything else is gravy.

REVERSAL

You never want to lose your presence of mind but perhaps if you are dealing with an opponent who's weaknesses are obvious to you, disrupt their presence of mind and force them to reveal more about themselves than they'd like to.

33 STRATEGIES OF SPORTS: MORALE STRATEGIES

Most sports fans are attached to teams from the city they're from.  I know a bunch of guys from the Bay Area who are die hard Golden Warrior fans.  I have a buddy from Atlanta who doesn't totally watch sports, but feels an affinity to the Falcons and Hawks.  I know a classical violinist who I never thought would watch sports but still speaks of the Rick Adelman era fondly -- she's from Sacramento and still watches the Sacramento Kings.

I'll give you another reason why sports is important to people.  The human need to feel bigger than we are.  Nobody likes to feel small.  Or, should I say, no one likes to be reminded how downright microscopic they really are.  You were a sperm in your dad's balls that fought 200,000 other sperms to arrive at your mom's egg.  You got in.  The other 199,000 got second place.  Now,  you're a human being existing amongst billions with aspirations to evolve in a universe that contains 170 billion galaxies.

This need for evolution could come in the form of 1) a career 2) having children who can learn from you wisdom and add to it or 3) simply having an itch to evolve... or you can call this, feeling unsatisfied with your life.  Welcome back to "The 33 Strategies of Sports", a concoction of Robert Greene's masterful book and sports history.  This week...

THE GROUP MORALE

The Detroit Lions are the worse franchise in the NFL.  They have not won a title since 1957.  They're the only team that lost all 16 games in one season.  They experienced a brief light last year and during the Barry Sanders era.   Sanders retired early, even though he was close to the all time rushing record.  It wasn't worth getting battered for such a doomed franchise, where the few fans that are there have were seen with paper bags on their heads.

The highlight for Detroit football fans used to be the Thanksgiving Game, which they get to host every year -- but usually lose.  And once in a while, the NFL threw them a bone and and let them host Superbowl.  Such was the case with Supebowl XL, in which the Seattle Seahawks faced The Pittsburgh Steelers.  This was a neutral enough site between the states of Pennsylvania and Washington.  But the hungry Detroit fans needed something more.  And they got it in the form of Jerome Bettis.

Bettis was the Steelers running back who was likely going to retire after this game.  He was once a feared back but there was a reason he wanted to retire.  He was getting old and his skills were fading fast.  In fact, he had a key fumble in the divisional playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts -- it nearly cost the Steelers the game, but they held on to win.  Later, Bettis would tell his teammates, "just get me to Detroit".  Bettis was 33, ancient for a running back.  But he was born in Detroit and was rated the top football player in the Detroit Free Press as a teenager.  Now, he would return home for what was potentially the last football game of his life.

All week, the papers, on TV, the internet proclaimed the return of Detroit's son.  The Detroit fans now had something to root for.  Bettis became their Messiah for one game.  For any Detroit native, the Steelers would be the Lions for one game.

Yes, their son Bettis knew what they felt like in Detroit.  A blue collar city hit by hard times.  Unlike the Seattle elite.  The conceited, coffee drinking society, the home of Starbucks -- they thought they were better than everyone.  Just look at Seattle quarterback, Matt Hassellbeck, a product of Massachusetts.  Here was a guy who had everything handed to him, including his job.  With these two stories dominating the media, the Supebowl became a war between the blue collar workers vs. the socialites.

When the Seahawks entered Ford Field on February 5,2006, they showered with boos.  Every color in the stadium was black and yellow (the color of the Steelers).  In an arena where the stage was supposed to be neutral, the Seahawks became the first team to experience playing against a home crowd.  While, the Steelers would be cheered like national heroes.

The Seahawks were facing not just the Steelers but 70,000 fans that wanted their heads on sticks - and played far below their abilities.  By the third quarter, the Steelers were up 14-3.  When Seattle field kicker Josh Brown chocked on two field goals, the fans erupted with delight.

But the Seahawks had the best record that year (13-3).  They were built for a championship (Coach Mike Holmgren had led the Green Bay Packers to a championship 10 years before).  They would eventually wake up, especially since the Steelers were not playing that well themselves.  Especially, their rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was clearly in over his head.

In fact, a mistake by Roethlisberger would ignite Seattle's come back.  With the game nearly wrapped up, Ben threw an interception on the 6 yard line to Seahawks defensive back Kelly Herndon -- who returned the ball 76 yards.  This lead to a Seattle touchdown.  The score was now 14-10, Pittsburgh.

In the fourth quarter, the fans became more restless.  70,000 would not accept a Steelers defeat.  Detroit had experienced too much hardship.  They needed this game and were not quiet about it.  They were upset that the Seahawks were now in position to take the lead.  Hasselbeck had managed to get the ball to the Steelers 19 yard line.  On the next play, Hasselbeck tossed an 18 yard pass to tight end Jerramy Stevens, bringing them to the one yard line.  The fans became cataclysmic.   Imagine how ear-splitting King Kong fucking Godzilla would be.  That loud.  Good thing referee Bill Leavy called holding on the Seahawks, negating the play -- as the angry crowd cheered him on.

Two plays later, Hassellbeck threw an interception at the 5 yard line to Steelers defensive back Ike Taylor.  Hassellbeck managed to tackle Taylor on the 29 yard line, but Leavy called another penaltly.  For blocking below the waist.  Giving the Steelers the ball at the 44 yard line.  The crowd became a sea of delight.  And four plays later, the Steelers put the game away, scoring the last touchdown of the game, winning 21-10.

Through all the hoopla, it was hardly noticed that Detroit's son Jerome Bettis had not played particularly well, failing to enter the end zone and rushing a paltry 43 yards.  Still, he was holding a trophy at the end.

INTERPRETATION

On August 7,2010, five years after Superbowl XL referee Bill Leavy said,"I will go to my grave with regret.  I kicked two calls in the fourth quarter and I impacted the game, and as an official you never want to do that".  The instant replays had clearly shown there no "holding" had taken place and also that Hassellbeck had not made a tackle below the waist.  They were phantom calls.

Leavy caved into the pressure of 70,000 Detroit fans.  Every human being on Earth is contagious in some way, but in a sporting event, they're very, very contagious, especially if you think a super mob will tear you apart.

Hines Ward won the MVP award, but the Steelers public relationships team were the true MVPs.  The PR team poured stories of Bettis being Detroit's son and trashed Seattle's elitist, coffee drinking society.  In truth, the city of Seattle is as blue collar as Pittsburgh.  Where Pittsburgh is steel town, Seattle is considered timber town.  Coffee drinking sounds stuck up, but really, even poor people drink it.  But it sounds stuck up, doesn't it?  The Steelers PR team ran with that.  And the people of Detroit bought it  hook, line and sinker, giving the Steelers the greatest home field advantage in Superbowl history.  90% of the crowd waved a terrible towel (the yellow cloth that represents the Steelers) and basically took the game with the force of 60,000.

Any project you do is practically worthless (even with money behind it), unless you can create an "aura" that makes it bigger than it is.  People are decaying, weak entities that, if lucky, will live 80-100 years, pissing on themselves in their dying days.  Don't remind them of that.  Working a crappy office job reminds people of this.  Let's face it, working most jobs does.  When people say they want to do what they love most for a living, they're really saying, they want to evolve, they want to have a purpose, because, when you do something you hate, you feel small and sperm-like (like you once were in you dad's balls).  When you do what you love, you work with the strength of ten people.  And in turn, you are bigger than yourself.   The Chinese call this "Ch'i", which means "energy flow".  Like money, like blood, if energy doesn't flow, it hardens and decays, then dies.

Any project, however banal you think it is, can be taken to the next level if you can build some kind of crusade around it.  If people were to stop and think how empty and answerless this world really was, they would wind up in a mental institution.  Thinking the opposite way -- that they are children of destiny -- gives them a chance to evolve. Why not let them do so in your project?

The Pittsburgh Steelers were the first team in Superbowl history to win the big game with less yards, less time of possession, less first downs and more turnovers than their opponent.  Roethlisberger passed for 123 yards, 0 touchdowns and 2 interceptions (a green monkey could get better statistics).  But Ben played in a team of destiny and walked out of Detroit victorious.  The people of Detroit proved that people that don't have a sense of purpose need it in a bad way -- and that power was used by the Steelers to surf the wave of victory.

REVERSAL

Morale works both ways.  You can infuse your group with passion and intensity because those emotions are contagious.  But bad emotions -- like malaise and mistrust -- are also contangious.  If you discover someone like this on your team, get rid of them.  Fast.  Or it will spread like wildfire.  Bill Bellichick never hesitates this practice.  Randy Moss talked shit about his team and was gone two weeks later, regardless of his prodigious talents.  The right psychology is your team's greatest value.  Guard it well.

33 STRATEGIES OF SPORTS: THE COMMAND AND CONTROL STRATEGY

Unless you live in a cave, you know this situation well.  You’ve been hired to do complete an important project.  You recruit a group of creative people.  Everyone has ideas they want to contribute, including your investors, reducing your brilliant plans to rubble.  The project ends up like shit, but you know it could have been amazing, had they followed your vision.  Too many egos.  Too many ideas.  There’s a saying in sports.  There’s only one ball to go around.

REMOTE CONTROL

On January 27^th, 2000, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft made history by trading a first round pick for a coach.  "We can bring in a man that I feel certain can do something, rather than the uncertainty of a draft choice," said Kraft, as he robotically shook hands with his new coach, Bill Bellichick.  This was Bellichick’s second head coaching job.  He had failed badly with the Cleveland Browns from 1991-1994, compiling an unimpressive 36-44 record (his last season, a 5-11 disaster that cost him his job).

Great coaches like Bill Walsh, Bill Parcells and Vince Lombardi were emotional men, who were frequently seen screaming, putting their guts on the field.  Bellichick resembled an accountant or a librarian.  He was short.  Showed about as much emotion as a statue.  And began his regime by saying, ”we've got too many people who are overweight”.  Bill proceeded to cut several players he considered too fat.

But, the 2000 season resulted in the identical 5-11 record Bellichick had amassed with the Browns.  This included a sodomizing loss to one of the worse teams in the league, the Detroit Lions by the score of 34-9. Had Kraft made a terrible mistake? 

Bellichick’s second season was going nowhere fast, beginning with a loss to the worst team in the NFL, the Cincinnati Bengals.  But the second game got a lot worse.  Their franchise quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, was pulverized by Jets linebacker Mo Lewis (Kraft had signed Bledsoe to a 10 year, $100 million extension), and now Bledsoe’s chest was filled with blood and rushed to ER.  The face of the Patriots would be out indefinitely.  Their backup took over.  One, Tom Brady, the 199^th pick of the 2000 draft.  Brady passed for a lousy 46 yards and finished the game with a loss.  The Patriots were0-2, a death knell in football.

Bellichick and his offensive coordinator Charlie Weis would make things simple for Brady, changing the game plan for his barely average arm strength (unlike Bledsoe, who could throw a football into the parking lot).  And somehow, the Pats would eke out a 5-5 record by the time Bledsoe was ready to return to his $10 million a year job.  But Bellichick surprised everyone by sticking with Brady, whom he called “the guy with the hot hand”.

The Patriots would continue winning with Brady, and no names guys like Troy Brown, David Patten, Kevin Faulk and on defense, with undersized linebackers Teddy Bruschi, Larry Izzo and Mike Vrabel.  Smart, fast athletes that Bellichick would call “coaches on the field”.  They weren’t the best defense or offense, but they would play smart and do just to enough to win.  In meetings, Bellichick would break down film (something he did since he was 7 years old) and during practice, he would quiz his guys.

And if any guy gave a dumb answer, Bellichick would call him out and explain in detail the mechanism of this guy’s stupidity.  He didn’t raise his voice.  But would calmly add, “don’t be that guy”.   After the meeting, other guys would castigate “that guy” further.  As if Bellichick himself had been infected in his players.

The Patriots were physically inferior to most teams, but they were so prepared mentally that they always gave themselves a chance to win.  Like Bellichick himself.  Undersized.  Analytical.  Poised.  It was as if Bellichick had cloned himself in 53 guys.  They even began to speak like him, quizzing each other, testing each other’s knowledge of that week’s game plan.  The same team that was declared D.O.A. at the beginning of the season would end the season shocking the world and winning their first Superbowl.

But this would only be their first. The Pats would replenish their teams in similar fashions, with guys you either never heard of (Richard Seymour, Asante Samuel) or guys whose careers you thought were over (Corey Dillon, Rodney Harrison, Junior Seau). They would all act and speak like Bellichick as if his soul possessed all these men. You never saw Patriots making dumb mistakes or shooting themselves in the foot. They were athletes with superior minds. Like John Malkovich’s dream in “Being John Malkovich” where everyone is Malkovich – except, everyone was Bellichick.

The Patriots would become the greatest team of the decade, the only dynasty in football since the Cowboys in the 90’s and the 49ers in the 80’s. Robert Kraft spent his first round pick wisely (Kraft likely saw Bellichick as a clone of himself, sharing the same philosophies, etc. Bill was the Patriots defensive coordinator three years earlier and the two were seen talking together frequently).

In an era of impatience and titanic egos, how did a guy who showed about as much emotion as a strip mall turn a mediocre franchise into the only dynasty in the last 10 years?

INTERPRETATION

Bellichick’s key was the selection and grooming of his protégés.  He would operate through them, using a psychological remote control.

This began with Tom Brady, who enjoyed a successful career in Michigan but was widely ignored by the NFL.  Brady was extremely talented, but humble and willing to learn, unlike most athletes.  Whereas Drew Bledsoe was a veteran, stuck on his ways.  Brady was Bellichick on the field. Opposing teams are not afraid of Brady’s arm strength, they’re afraid of Brady’s “decision making”.

After Brady, Bellichick would clone himself in Teddy Bruschi, who was also ignored by the NFL during the draft.  Bruschi was trusted to make audibles on defense.  His football mind was uncanny.  Other teams were not concerned about Teddy’s size (he was barely 6 ft tall), but of his “decision making”.

You would not see flashy players in the Patriots regime.  And if you did, that flashy player had been humbled or considered “washed up”.  This is when Bellichick would swap him up.  When that guy’s mind was ready to be a virgin again and filled with Bellichick juice.  Such was the case with Randy Moss.  Who was traded by the Oakland Raiders for a fourth pick.

The first year as a Patriot, Moss would break the single season touchdown record, playing the Bellichick way.  When Moss turned into a premadonna again, Bellichick simply let him go.

As Mr.Greene says,”today’s world is complex and chaotic, it is harder than ever to exercise control through a chain of command.  You cannot supervise everything yourself.  You cannot keep your eye on everyone.  Being seen as a dictator will do your harm.  But if you submit to complexity and let go of your chain of command, chaos will consume you”.

The solution is to find the Bellichick inside you.  Simplify things.  Shorten your reports.  Eliminate pointless meetings that no one really pays attention to anyway.   And hire people who share your philosophy.  If a person is technically brilliant but doesn’t share your philosophy, that person will rip your team apart like a loaf of bread.  This is why Bellichick released Randy Moss without hesitation.  Team leadership is as fragile as women’s underwear.  You cannot be a fascist or democratic.  Either extremes will rot your group.  This balance is a kind of dance, a Tai Chi-like push and pull that is required for groups today.

KEYS TO ENGAGEMENT

No one likes authority anymore.  No one likes to be bossed around.  Today, people think they know everything.  Let’s face it, we all think we should be running the show and feel inferior if we don’t.  This is why, in a group, leaders frequently give too much creative input, just to appease people.  But giving too much away violates the most sacred rule in leadership, “Unity of Command”. 

Without “Unity of Command”, your group is like a body without a head.  It doesn’t matter if this body can run faster than a horse or whistle with it’s asshole, it has no direction, no logic.  Much a like a group with a powerless leader.  Put the head back on and the body has purpose.  You are the head and the group is the body.  Your restore it’s logic.

This is not to say, you want “yes” men.  If someone agrees with everything you say, they are kissing your ass, which is dangerous.  Bellichick actually rewards his staff for challenging him and proving him wrong.  Really stare at someone’s history before you hire them.  Not what they’re good at, but where they’ve been, and for how long.  This person could be the political backstabber in your group.  It only takes one bad apple to confuse your message and destroy it’s simplicity. 

Bellichick likes to say things like, if you do this, you will win, if you do this, you will lose.  Keeping things very simple.  In the end, Bill is a simple man who’s messages are clear.  This was evident during the 2008 season, when the Patriots lost Tom Brady to a season ending injury and turned to journeyman, Matt Cassell, who still led New England to 11-5 record.  

Bill’s direct and simple ways was never more clear than when a Spanish journalist asked him to make a comment and he replied, ”I can’t.  I don’t speak Spanish.  Not one word of it”.

REVERSAL

There is no value in relinquishing “Unity of Command”.  Your group is dead without it.  If you are offered a job where you share the leadership, turning it down or accepting a lower position might be a better idea.  It will save you lots of time and heartache.  “Unity of Command” is a river than can only flow one way, yours or someone else’s.