Post by nwood22 on Jun 12, 2018 8:28:45 GMT -8
I wanted to suggest a book that Jocko might want to potentially review on the podcast.
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by by Daniel James Brown
It is not in the military genre as one might ascertain form the title BUT is it filled with countless examples of LEADERSHIP, Dealing with Adversity, being ON THE PATH and GETTING AFTER IT.
One of my favorite sections of the book talks about the psychology of a team....
The team effort – the perfectly synchronized flow of muscle, oars, boat and water; the single, whole, unified, and beautiful symphony that a crew in motion becomes – is all that matters. Not the individual, not the self.
The psychology is complex. Even as rowers must subsume their often fierce sense of independence and self-reliance, at the same time they must hold true to their individuality, their unique capabilities as oarsmen or oarswoman or, for that matter, as human beings. Even if they could, few rowing coaches would simply clone their biggest, strongest, smartest, and most capable rowers. Crew races are not won by clones. They are won by crews, and great crews are carefully balanced blends of both physical abilities and personality types. In physical terms, for instance, one rowers arms might be longer than another’s, but the latter might have a stronger back than the former.
Neither is necessarily a better or more valuable oarsman than the other; both are assets to the boat. But if they are to row well together, each of these oarsmen must adjust to the needs and capabilities of the other. Each must be prepared to compromise something in the way of optimizing his stoke for the overall benefit of the boat – the shorter-armed man reaching a little farther, the longer-armed man foreshortening his reach a bit- so that both men’s oars remain parallel and both blades enter and exit the water at precisely the same moment. This highly refined coordination and cooperation must be multiplied out across eight individual’s strengths. Only in this way can the capabilities that come with diversity – lighter, more technical rowers in the bow and stronger, heavier pullers in the middle of the boat, for instance-be turned to advantage rather than disadvantage.
And capitalizing on diversity is perhaps even more important when it comes to characters of oarsmen, a crew composed entirely of eight amped-up, overly aggressive oarsmen will often degenerate into a dysfunctional brawl in a boat or exhaust itself in the first leg of a long race. Similarly, a boatload of quiet but strong introverts may never find the common core of fiery resolve that causes the boat to explode past its competitors when all seems lost. Good crews are good blends of personalities: someone to lead the charge, someone to hold something in reserve; someone to pick a fight, someone to make peace; someone to think things through, someone to charge ahead without thinking. Somehow all this must mesh. That’s the steepest challenge.”
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by by Daniel James Brown
It is not in the military genre as one might ascertain form the title BUT is it filled with countless examples of LEADERSHIP, Dealing with Adversity, being ON THE PATH and GETTING AFTER IT.
One of my favorite sections of the book talks about the psychology of a team....
The team effort – the perfectly synchronized flow of muscle, oars, boat and water; the single, whole, unified, and beautiful symphony that a crew in motion becomes – is all that matters. Not the individual, not the self.
The psychology is complex. Even as rowers must subsume their often fierce sense of independence and self-reliance, at the same time they must hold true to their individuality, their unique capabilities as oarsmen or oarswoman or, for that matter, as human beings. Even if they could, few rowing coaches would simply clone their biggest, strongest, smartest, and most capable rowers. Crew races are not won by clones. They are won by crews, and great crews are carefully balanced blends of both physical abilities and personality types. In physical terms, for instance, one rowers arms might be longer than another’s, but the latter might have a stronger back than the former.
Neither is necessarily a better or more valuable oarsman than the other; both are assets to the boat. But if they are to row well together, each of these oarsmen must adjust to the needs and capabilities of the other. Each must be prepared to compromise something in the way of optimizing his stoke for the overall benefit of the boat – the shorter-armed man reaching a little farther, the longer-armed man foreshortening his reach a bit- so that both men’s oars remain parallel and both blades enter and exit the water at precisely the same moment. This highly refined coordination and cooperation must be multiplied out across eight individual’s strengths. Only in this way can the capabilities that come with diversity – lighter, more technical rowers in the bow and stronger, heavier pullers in the middle of the boat, for instance-be turned to advantage rather than disadvantage.
And capitalizing on diversity is perhaps even more important when it comes to characters of oarsmen, a crew composed entirely of eight amped-up, overly aggressive oarsmen will often degenerate into a dysfunctional brawl in a boat or exhaust itself in the first leg of a long race. Similarly, a boatload of quiet but strong introverts may never find the common core of fiery resolve that causes the boat to explode past its competitors when all seems lost. Good crews are good blends of personalities: someone to lead the charge, someone to hold something in reserve; someone to pick a fight, someone to make peace; someone to think things through, someone to charge ahead without thinking. Somehow all this must mesh. That’s the steepest challenge.”
