Yesterday we were in Chicago – first w a college at St Xavier, then w a HS at St Laurence, all w our TeamMorgan partner family, the Ursos.
I come from a fam of educators – father was a principal, mother was a language teacher, grandparents teachers as well. I heard many of the stories & frustrations as they’d come home – what kids listened up, what kids participated, what assembly programs worked, which ones failed (um, “Just Say No”).
Then when I went thru my own crash, & left sports to get into this space, I had little idea at first what programs we’d run. I was invited to seminars w rigid x-hour programs where you get “certificates of completion.” I sat in classes where there was “curriculum in a box.” In both cases, the msgs were clear from an education standpoint – This is the content we are teaching & this is how you do “it.” There was no flexibility, no uniqueness for each individual.
Yes you need structure, but if I’ve learned anything from being coached on teams, & then coaching others on teams myself, it’s that everyone learns slightly differently. You can start w an outline, but you need to allow creativity & personality to come to life w/in that outline.
Yesterday at both schools, we started w the presentation session on diff Pillars (outline) we laid the foundation on (Building Culture, & Establishing Common Language), but then (slides➡️) we passed those concepts to the students, teachers, coaches, to get up in front of each other & USE the tools. Become familiar. Make them their own.
We had two kids use the SameHere Scale, in front of their peers to identify a state of mind they were at when they lost a close friend at just 17. Big, athletic football players, macho dudes…emoting by USING the tools themselves, learning that this is sciences- there are reasons why they feel the way they do, & it leading to openness, vulnerability, & greater self-awareness, in front of their peers.
Def in-person, & so often here on social, we gotta get away from preaching so much: the influencer telling us what works. Instead – can we facilitate, give tools & options, & help others learn what works for the