Il forum sulla Qualità di QualitiAmo

[QualitiAmo - Stefania]

Su NC State of business potete leggere un articolo dal titolo: "Lean and Basketball".

Questa è la versione tradotta in italiano con il traduttore automatico di Google.

I’m a native Princetonian, born down the street from the historic university in New Jersey. Okay, so I only spent a few days there before I left the hospital and went home to the town I lived in down the road, but it sounds cool to say “native Princetonian”. I also love basketball. So I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Princeton University basketball. I grew up during the Pete Carril coaching era. Pete was the Tigers’ coach from 1967 through 1996. As you can see from his Hall of Fame link, during his reign, Princeton won over 500 games, won 13 Ivy League titles, and made 11 NCAA tournament appearances. This was accomplished in the face of very selective admissions standards, little television exposure, and a conference policy of no athletic scholarships. Carril and his fellow Ivy League coaches weren’t able to recruit very many blue chip players. He had a number of players with famous connections (e.g., the sons of coaching legend John Thompson and all-star player Bill Walton, and another solid player, Craig Robinson, who is President Obama’s brother-in-law), but they, like their teammates, were not household names while playing for Princeton. How did he do it? In addition to his natural coaching and teaching skills, a lot of credit is given to his offensive system, which has come to be known as the “Princeton Offense”. It’s characterized by total team involvement and patience (e.g., a lot of passing until a player is open for a very high-percentage shot near the basket).

What are some key points about Pete Carril and the Princeton Offense that relate to Lean thinking?

Strong Human Support System and Teamwork. Carril built his rosters with talented and unselfish players who put their trust in the system. Each had to understand their role and not veer from the “standardized work” in the playbook. Likewise, in a strong Lean business, it is essential to have a well-trained and motivated staff to execute all of the good tools and methodologies that have been introduced to them.

Simple is Best. In its purest form, the Princeton Offense features only a handful of plays, with well-defined roles. In a lean process, we seek to not overcomplicate things.

Teach Others to See. Carril once said, “The measure of any teacher, provided he’s not an egomaniac, is to see anybody that he taught do better than he did.” This is the mindset that a strong Lean leader or sensei must have. Many of Carril’s players went on to become successful coaches in their own right. For example, John Thompson III took his Georgetown team to the 2007 NCAA semifinals.

Work Hard for Results, Not Attention. Like Toyota, Princeton had a very successful operating system that “flew below the radar” for many years. Toyota’s system became well known after books such as The Machine that Changed the World and Lean Thinking came out. Carril’s system gained notoriety after the Tigers upset a much higher seeded UCLA team in the 1996 NCAA tournament.

Benchmark and Adopt Best Practices. Many coaches at the NBA (professional) and college level have consulted with Pete Carril over the years and adopted the offense to suit their teams. Many companies benchmark Toyota and other strong Lean companies in order to improve their own processes.

Can you think of other sports or team analogies that link well to Lean thinking?