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Thursday, April 17, 2008
Paul Johnson goes deep … on the power of perception
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Simple question for Paul Johnson yesterday. Complex answer, as would be expected.
Q: Now that you’ve been on the case for several months, how would you assess your team’s chemistry, cohesion, etc.
“I think the guys genuinely like each other; I don’t think there’s been an issue that way,” he said. “I think there was too much separation in the segments of the team, too much, ‘Well, we did OK at our spot, but this group is killing us.’ It’s all one unit. We’re making progress. I think it comes from the coaching staff.”
To summarize, just about every new head coach wants to change tempo and culture. Whether changes stick is determined to great degree by the group’s character in sum, and also by the method and diligence of those seeking to make change.
Nearly every large unit of people will have dissenters.
The net effectiveness of the change is determined largely by how effectively dissenters are swayed, muted or run off. The shaping of this psychology is determined in part by external forces, like perceptions from the outside in, perceptions from the rank and file that each player has of himself, coaches and his teammates, and how those from within view or let affect them what they take to be the perceptions from outside (Ignore them? Work off of them? Resent them? etc.).
Addressing this is not as easy, of course, as coaches saying, “Hey, ignore that,” or, “don’t think that way.” It takes more than that; it takes leadership and merger of a do-what-I-do and do-what-I-say approach. My take: this is part of why Johnson sometimes has been known to get snappy with media (I take this as a good thing as it’s easier to engage coaches like that in reasonable, if sometimes charged, dialogue).
More from Johnson, on the effects of perception:
“To me, it has something to do with the perception of the media. If every day you pick up the paper, and it says the defense is carrying the team, or the offense is terrible, by game five the defense believes it. Now, the offense has copped an attitude, and maybe the offense ain’t all that,” he said. “You just can’t function that way. It’s got to be one team, and the way to do it, and the assistant coaches know that’s a pet peeve of mine [in taking care of one’s own business and not working as if each unit has to do something special for fear another unit will fail].
“If that’s what you’re hearing all the time, that this side is [bad], and these guys aren’t any good … as a player you don’t want to hear that it’s so and so’s fault. A lot of times, it’s not anything that has to do with the team, and you’ve got to fight it. If everybody is telling you that Reggie Ball is the reason you’re losing, everybody wants to believe that, you know, ‘It can’t be me; it’s got to be him.’
“I think dealing with people’s emotions, and getting them to buy into something is important. There are some guys that are never going to completely buy in, but you’ve got to get them to at least neutral ground. As a general rule, I think everybody values themselves more than [others].”
As Johnson noted, there are exceptions. Some people aren’t selfish enough.
“There are some guys who are tough on themselves no matter what they do. [Former Georgia Southern quarterback] Tracy Ham was unbelievable that way,” he said. “He was going to take more blame than he ever could have done as a player. I had to find reasons for him that it wasn’t his fault even if it was. He was so hard on himself he’d beat himself up. He was such a perfectionist. But those guys are few and far between.
“The thing I try to sell to those guys is that we’re going to have to win some games 6-3, and we’re going to have to win some 46-43. They both count the same, and if you’re going to be any good, you’re going to have some of both.”
How about that? Invoking the best quarterback he’s ever had, and the most controversial Tech quarterback in memory in one conversation, without provocation I might add.
Dig the depth and texture of this man’s thinking.
Matt
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