I remember a few years back about 10 years ago a speaker at the Willow Creek Leadership Conference saying there were two types of organizations that see huge gains.
- The organization that buys talent. (Like when the Florida Marlins won the World Series)
- The organization that grows talent. (The speaker compared that to the farm system of the Boston Red Sox.)
The implications were simple. You could go out and buy talent and win in the short-term or you could build an organization that cultivates talent.
Both win. Make no bones about it… both can generate winners.
But, for some people, how you win matters.
I’m one of those people.
I look at what the Yankees do or Kentucky basketball or other sports teams [cough, Mark Driscoll books]… going out and buying talent… and I cheer against them because there’s something in me that doesn’t like their strategy. What they are doing isn’t wrong but it is gaming the system for a quick win.
That’s a values judgement. It’s not that I can’t acknowledge that what they do works. It is a viable strategy for winning. But to me, it’s winning while having poor character or a weak disposition.
Winning the right way takes time and investment, a million small decisions eventually pay off with a big win.
The Process of Winning
Here in San Diego, we’ve been given a front-row seat to a hall of fame coach create something special at San Diego State.
Look, SDSU was a doormat team for generations.
Other school still sneer at State… “Fall back school” or “commuter school.” As I’ve written before, when we first moved to the College Area the most school pride you saw was in State’s status as a party school.
But winning has changed everything.
As the football & basketball teams have won the university as a whole has benefited. (You can’t say sports have been 100% of the reason, but the national attention has certainly helped.)
- SDSU now receives the #2 amount of applications in the country, behind only UCLA. 77,959 people applied for Fall 2014. Not a fall back school anymore, for most it’s their first choice and it’s hard to get in.
- This month the new Aztec Student Union opened to the public. It’s a game changer, beautiful building, and a statement to students… SDSU has amazing public spaces. (The Aztec Recreation Center is incredible, we can’t wait to get our summer passes again.) Drive around the area and you’ll see evidence popping up all over in the form of massive student housing facilities: This is becoming a residential university.
- Mixed with the great academics that were already in place… and you have a university flourishing, truly stepping into a new era.
Steve Fisher
As a basketball fan I’m well aware that we have one of the great coaches of all time among us at State. Since the beginning of the season Steve Fisher has preached one thing about his team, “We are a program.”
His point is that the winning that has come, currently sitting at #7/#8 in the country, is the result of slowly building a basketball program at State.
- He came to State in 1999 after a run at Michigan that started with winning the national championship and ended with accusations that those same players were on the take.
- The only thing SDSU had of value for the basketball team was a brand new arena. (Games had hundreds of fans in a brand new building that could seat 12,414. Ouch.
- When he arrived the team had 13 out of 14 losing seasons.
- No one wanted to be the head coach at State. Nobody.
And yet the story of SDSU’s emergence on the college basketball season has been a story of slowly developing a program “the right way,” according to Fisher.
- They won 5 games his first year, 14 his second, and 21 his third. (Including winning the MWC tourney.)
- Until recently, State hasn’t been able to get top talent out of high school. Fisher has built his program with transfers. That formula has worked for nearly 15 years… 3 of this years 5 starters are transfers.
- That is shifting a bit. Next years recruiting class ranks #16 in the country.
- The core group hasn’t changed. Brian Dutcher and Steve Fisher have been together since their days at Michigan. Where else can you say that in college sports? (Answer: Only at places like Duke & Syracuse.) For the most part the basketball program is run by people who have been with Fisher forever or have grown up through the program at State.
- This Sunday they will advance to the NCAA tournament for the 5th straight year. Those consecutive appearances put SDSU into rare air in college basketball.
What’s the Point?
The point is… that building a program is the right way to win. See, all of this has happened and SDSU hasn’t even reached the pinnacle of it’s potential. The basketball program has only made the Sweet 16 once. They’ve never been to a Final Four, much less won the national championship.
But the hard work of 15 years of program building has laid the groundwork to make that happen. See, you can win championships by writing big checks. Or you can build a program that’ll get you to the top of the heap year after year.
There’s still things to accomplish. They want to make the Final Four. They are in the process of building a dedicated basketball practice facility. (Which helps in preparation but also helps in recruiting the very best high school athletes.)
Steve Fisher started at State with absolutely no positive momentum. And now? They have all the momentum in the world.
They did that, and its so easy to get excited about, because they’ve done it the right way.
There’s something in that for all of us. Whatever you lead you want to build it and run it the right way. Because winning isn’t just about championships… it’s about an environment where winning comes naturally.
And that, my friends, is good news.
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