What Are You Doing To Get Better?

Pat Riley was one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time.  He was head coach of five championship teams, most of them with the Los Angeles Lakers.  In his book, THE WINNER WITHIN, Riley recounts how his 1985-86 Lakers had succumbed to complacency.  He was determined that his 86-87 Laker team would get better and he implemented a system called Career Best Effort that utilized various numbers and measurements to motivate his team to strive for basketball excellence.  He said, “excellence is never having learned enough.  A few seasons in competitive sports teaches you how success can lull people.  Teams who stay on top know different… and they live it.  Excellence is the gradual result of always wanting to do better” (Riley, 1993, p. 160-161).  His 86-87 Laker team won the NBA championship.

This is what business is all about.  What are you trying to do to get better and strive for excellence?  If this is the goal, then growth will take care of itself.  As Edward Hess has stated,  “growth means getting better: delivering better products, competing better, having better business processes, executing better, and providing a better customer value proposition” (Hess, 2010, p. 183).

* Riley, THE WINNER WITHIN

* Hess, Smart Growth