A Proposed Alternative to the Hoplite Debate

This is the paper I wrote for the History of the Ancient Mediterranean class I took with Denise Kawasaki through SUNY Empire State University. In this paper, I took a deep look at a chapter from Donald Kagan's Men of Bronze which reviews the origins, evolution and current fighting points of the "hoplite debate". After considering all sides, I propose an alternative model based on an iterative approach.

A Proposed Alternative to the Hoplite Debate from Mike Lally

Book Review: Practice Perfect

I don't know what happened. I finished Practice Perfect back in September and I never wrote a review! I got turned on to this book from Tom Peters. He was doing a piece on a leadership self assessment and talked about this book.

[Interesting sidebar here: I had to go google "tom peters practice perfect" to make sure that is how I got turned on to this book. I found Tom's 2012 reading list. This book was on it. As were 54 others!

54.

I hate him. My list this year will top out at 23 or 24. Keep in mind, I am also reading a G.I.A.N.T. text for my History of the Ancient Mediterranean course. But 55, Tom? Damn.]

I knew right away this was going to be a great book because only 1 or 2 pages in they start talking about John Wooden. The famous coach of UCLA basketball. 10 NCAA Championships. In there, an 88 game winning streak. Seven of those championships were in.a.row.

The authors help teachers get better. They are educators. They are coaches. So the guy that has written the first review on Amazon that says that this book is only worth reading if you are an educator. That guy should be banned from Amazon. Actually, he should be banned from the Internet. That guy is what is wrong with the world.

This book is for everyone that has to (or wants to) stand in front of a group of people and LEAD them. Everything these authors have done for teachers and educators DIRECTLY applies to every leader down to the newly minted team leader of a small quality assurance team.

I went through my kindle highlights as I set about writing this review. (I have no idea how to link them even though they are "public." But two things struck me. First, I may have highlighted the most passages of a book EVER. Second, I forgot to include PARENTS in my list of people that would benefit from this book. My daughter's CYO basketball season just started. I just re-read my highlights and have remembered some critical tips from Lemov on how to coach her.

Here is the summary of rules included at the end of the book. Go read the book. Highlight it. Write notes. Put post it notes on it. The summary is mostly there for me as a quick place to go refresh myself. But they will also serve as a very high level introduction for you, dear reader. 

SUMMARY OF RULES 

1. Encode Success Practice getting it right. Take the time to check for understanding and work for mastery before adding complexity. Remember, failure builds character better than it builds skills.

2. Practice the 20 Be great at the things that matter most. Spend 80% of your time practicing the 20% of skills that are most important.

3. Let the Mind Follow the Body Get skills going on autopilot. Build up automated skills to master more complex situations.

4. Unlock Creativity . . . with Repetition You can’t do higher level work if you are wasting brain power on the basics. Drill the fundamentals to free your mind to be creative when it matters most.

5. Replace Your Purpose (with an Objective) Purpose is not enough. Focus practice on measurable and manageable objectives.

6. Practice “Bright Spots” Tap into the power of what works. Find your strengths and use practice to make them stronger.

7. Differentiate Drill from Scrimmage To develop skills, use drills. Reserve scrimmage for evaluating performance readiness and mastery.

8. Correct Instead of Critique Help people repeat a task in a concretely different way rather than simply telling them what was wrong.

9. Analyze the Game The skills needed to deliver a winning performance are not always obvious. Watch, gather data, analyze, and let yourself be surprised.

10. Isolate the Skill New skills are best taught and practiced in isolation. Challenge yourself to define small, specific skills and to craft precise drills for each.

11. Name It Give skills a name and create a shared vocabulary for practice in order to focus people’s discussion and reflection.

12. Integrate the Skills After initial mastery, weave together multiple skills in increasingly complex environments and situations.

13. Make a Plan Great practices depend on great planning. Create plans with data-driven objectives, detail activities down to the last minute, then rehearse and revise.

14. Make Each Minute Matter Every moment is precious. Find efficiencies and make them a routine part of practice.

15. Model and Describe Good teaching requires both showing and explaining to ensure understanding.

16. Call Your Shots When modeling —whether it may be a specific technique or how to run a meeting— alert observers to what you’re trying to demonstrate so they see it happen. Help them watch strategically and with intention.

17. Make Models Believable Flawless modeling in ideal settings can be easy to dismiss. Ensure that modeling occurs in conditions that are true to life and credible.

18. Try Supermodeling Directly modeling a skill in context is an opportunity to show how other skills can be applied.

19. Insist They “Walk This Way” Many people resist imitating others, thinking it’s cheating or uncreative. But sometimes this is the best way to learn. Make “copying” a good word and tell people what they should strive to copy.

20. Model Skinny Parts Break down complex skills into narrow steps, modeling each part separately. Let people succeed and then stop before they try to do more than they can successfully execute.

21. Model the Path Modeling the perfect result can sometimes lead to poor performance. Model the process of how to achieve as well as the achievement itself.

22. Get Ready for Your Close-up Video has many advantages. You can edit what gets shown, highlight important points, analyze, and review. Use it to capture real-life situations—both in the performance and in practice.

23. Practice Using Feedback (Not Just Getting It) It’s one thing to accept feedback; it’s another to actually use it. Make putting feedback into practice right away the expectation.

24. Apply First, Then Reflect Reflection is worthwhile, but it is best done after you’ve tried out feedback, not before.

25. Shorten the Feedback Loop Feedback works best when it’s given (and used) immediately. Timing of feedback (and the right time is right away) beats strength of feedback every time.

26. Use the Power of Positive Feedback is not just a tool for repair. Identify what people do right, help them repeat it, and guide them to apply it in other settings.

27. Limit Yourself Too much feedback is overwhelming. Feedback from too many sources is confusing. Discipline yourself and others to keep feedback focused and productive.

28. Make It an Everyday Thing Make feedback the norm by consistently giving and receiving it from the start. Create an environment where feedback is not only accepted but welcomed.

29. Describe the Solution (Not the Problem) Make sure guidance is specific, actionable, and tells people what to do. Find ways to abbreviate frequently-given solutions to make them easier and faster to apply.

30. Lock It In To insure feedback is fully received as intended, ask recipients to summarize it, prioritize important parts, and identify their first step in implementation.

31. Normalize Error People will not take risks if they are afraid to fail. Approach error as an opportunity to learn.

32. Break Down the Barriers to Practice Practice can be stressful and sometimes scary. Develop strategies for overcoming barriers in order to start practicing successfully.

33. Make It Fun to Practice Integrate elements of play, competition, and surprise to cultivate an environment where practice is both valued and enjoyed.

34. Everybody Does It In a true culture of learning, top leadership can’t just stand back and watch. Model risk taking and openness to feedback in order to invest others in practice.

35. Leverage Peer-to-Peer Accountability When people on teams make mutual commitments to each other, investment and follow through are more likely to occur.

36. Hire for Practice Build a team that is open and ready to do the hard work of practice. Ask candidates to practice and implement your feedback.

37. Praise the Work Normalize praise that is meaningful and supports the work your team is doing. Praise actions, not traits. Differentiate acknowledgment from praise.

38. Look for the Right Things Closely align what you look for in performance with skills taught in practice. Create observation tools to keep a focus on the right things.

39. Coach During the Game (Don’t Teach) Performance is a time for cues and reminders. Introducing new skills should be reserved for practice.

40. Keep Talking Take the shared vocabulary developed during practice into the field. Finesse it to create a shorthand for communicating (but not teaching!) during performance and when debriefing.

41. Walk the Line (Between Support and Demand) Be the warm/ strict coach. Reward hard work and communicate urgency when improvement is necessary.

42. Measure Success Measurement drives results. Gather data during performance to improve practice.

I am Reinventing Myself.

I have read "The Ultimate Cheat Sheet For Reinventing Yourself" by James Altucher from TechCrunch roughly 20 times since October 19th. It probably works out to EVERY DAY since I first read it. I've let it bake. I've let it permeate my cells. It is in my breath.

I started my first college class since 1989 last Monday, October 28, 2013. The class is The History of the Ancient Mediterranean. I love history. My wife is found of saying with a "can you believe this?" voice that I "read history for fun." I am weird. I understand. My goal is to teach. After years of thinking about it and thinking about it some more, it finally dawned on me that I love history and that I should do something about it. My short term goal is to become an adjunct history teacher at a local community college. I need a degree for that. Empire State College is going to let that happen for me.

Back to Reinventing Yourself.

I am reinventing myself. This article is fantastic. Altucher makes a ton of great points. I am going to run through some of them here and hopefully, tie it back to my path.

1. REINVENTION NEVER STOPS. The only constant is change. We are always in a state of change. Altucher says we decide whether we go forward or backward. In a sense, my decision to go back to school is a decision to go backward and FINISH what I started in 1986 at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

2. TIME IT TAKES TO REINVENT YOURSELF: FIVE YEARS. From the article:

Here’s a description of the five years:

• Year One: you’re flailing and reading everything and just starting to DO.
• Year Two: you know who you need to talk to and network with. You’re Doing every day. You finally know what the monopoly board looks like in your new endeavors.
• Year Three: you’re good enough to start making money. It might not be a living yet.
• Year Four: you’re making a good living
• Year Five: you’re making wealth

 My thinking is to a) do what I love and b) create a side hustle for myself. I am not too worried about creating wealth from it. But I am not ruling out wealth. :)

3. WHEN CAN I START DOING X? Altucher says TODAY. "Start buying 500 books one at a time and start...." I love it. I just bought approximately 10 books for my first class. Only one was on the syllabus, but I bought others because I know I am going to need them soon.  He goes on to answer the question of "What if I can't read 500 books?"

GIVE UP.

I love it.

4. HOW SHOULD I NETWORK?

Make concentric circles. You’re at the middle.
The next circle is friends and family.
The next circle is online communities.
The circle after that is meetups and coffees.
The circle after that is conferences and thought leaders.
The circle after that is mentors.
The circle after that is customers and wealth-creators.
Start making your way through the circles.

This is probably the biggest take away from this article. I was already on this road of reinvention. This is a great field manual for how to connect with others to LEARN.

The next biggest take away is to start teaching via YouTube. 

Start with an audience of one and see if it builds up. 

Again, this article is so great.

I've been stressing about the actual coursework. I had lost sight of the end goal. I need to do more than just take class after class. I need to get out there. I need to hustle. YouTube, here I come. 

Book Review: Eleven Rings

I just finished reading the EXCELLENT book, Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success by Phil Jackson. Jackson was a player and ultimately a coach in the NBA. He won 11 championships (and the rings with them) in his career. Six with the Lakers and 5 with the Bulls. Don't make the mistake of dismissing this book as a piece of basketball history.

This book is about leadership and Jackson's approach to winning. Jackson's coaching/leadership style is grounded in the religion of his parents, Zen Buddhism and the spiritual teachings of the Lakota. Jackson believes in always learning. For me, the book has four major themes:

- Love
- Mindfulness
- Tribe or Tribal Leadership
- Selfless Leadership.

Regarding "love", Jackson quotes from Sebastian Junger's book, "War" (which I also highly recommend by the way). Junger states that the most essential ingredient for team success is "love." Love is what bands the band of brothers together. Jackson also quotes his brother who believes that one of the things that can help you cope with fear is love. (The other is faith.)

Mindfulness is about quieting your monkey brain and focusing on being present. Jackson brough in George Mumford to help the Bulls. 

George taught mindfulness as a way of life, what he called “meditation off the cushion.” That meant being fully present not just on the basketball floor but throughout the rest of the day as well. The key, he said, was not just to sit and calm your mind but to learn to read and react effectively in any situation based on what’s happening at that very moment.

Jackson refers heavily to Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan et al. (Added to my reading list.) Logan and company lay out their thoughts on the 5 Stages of Tribal Leaderships. Tribes/groups exist in any one of the 5 stages and can move from stage to stage. The five stages of tribal development are: life sucks, my life sucks, I'm great and you're not, we're great and finally, life is great. Jackson leads his teams through these stages to get them to perform at high levels.

Throughout the book,  Jackson shares his leadership style. He believes in Selfless Leadership. He believes everyone is a leader. He wants his players to think for themselves, not look to him for decisions. He believes is distributing power. Jackson said, "...the more I tried to exert power directly, the less powerful I became." He believed that leadership "is not about forcing your will on others. Its about mastering the art of letting go."

Again, this was a fantastic read. I strongly recommend it. It will set you on a path for sure. As I sit here reflecting on the book it strikes me that this is a book about systems thinking. Jackson shares his system with us. His system is about systems thinking. How to get the system (team) to run harmoniously. Wow.

The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP

The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP

This article is a MUST READ on not just technical interviewing but interviewing and even the hiring process from start to finish. Knowing the type of person you want to hire all the way through team interviewing.

Loved this piece.