Coach K - business school case study

Coach K really does serve as a walking case study on organization and human performance best practices. I say this, drawing on a few classes now in management and organizations. Today's example can be found here -

Coach K could easily rest on his laurels as one of the most successful coaches in college history. Instead, he used his three years of coaching the Olympic team to gain exposure to a diverse set of coaches on his staff, but more so, exposure to thousands of hours of international competition and what does and does not work around the world. He then brought that back to Duke to change the way he coaches. A lesser coach would simply plod away with what has worked so well in the past, fill his Olympic coaching staff with yes-men who come from the same school of coaching philosophy, or go to international competition more concerned with proving the value of his methods vs. learning from the example of other teams.

Not Coach K. I'd wager (though I'm hardly the first) that his willingness to continually learn and adapt is what has allowed Coach K to sustain Duke's basketball success for so long.

(story found via Duke Basketball Report).

Making overt what other politicians make covert

Jack Shafer at Slate puts it well:

"If Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is immediately guilty of anything, it's of making overt what other politicians make covert, and doing so while the wiretaps roll." Read the rest here.

Is Blagojevich inept at playing the game? It seems so. Is he corrupt and rightfully destined to join his Illinois gubernatorial predecessors in prison? It seems so. Does anyone believe Blagojevich is unique in conflating his personal interests with his elected duty?

Today's exhibit A: Senate Democrats had enough Republican votes to pass the auto bailout but not enough to provide political cover, so no go. Read the rest at the Weekly Standard (via Instapundit). Either the auto bailout was in the best interests of the US and their constituents or it wasn't. Not proceeding with a vote because there wasn't enough "cover" seems to be the same game, albeit in a legal and socially acceptable form.

Path Dependencies at Work

Here's an amazing mash-up of two maps. The conclusion is intuitive, but startling in its' seeming precision. A beautiful example of the power of images to convey complex concepts.

"This is the south’s 2008 presidential vote (in red and blue) overlaid by an 1860 map of cotton production (dots)."

From Strange Maps (via Chris Blattman's Blog, via Creative Class, via Durham's Bull)

Governor Blagojevich: He's Just Like Us!

Everyone knows by now about Governor Blagojevich's adventures in Chicago-style politics. It's laughable. Like dumb and dumber try to play the graft game. Self-delusion to the extreme. It's got me thinking though of what separates someone like Governor Blagojevich from:

• Typical back-scratching politics (e.g. Murtha)?
• less subtle "networking" where people do favors and advance friends on the belief that they're collecting a war chest of "chips" they can cash in later?
• A CEO empire building by pushing M&A deals he/she knows are not in the best interest of their company?
  
• Any typical business school student?

All seem ruled by self-serving expediency where ends justify means. The difference is probably two fold:

• Blagojevich's willingness to grossly cross the line of what is actually illegal (as opposed to questionably moral)
• Blagojevich's ineptness
  

I suspect there will be many who fundamentally don't understand why what Blagojevich did was a big deal (illegal, sure, but probably not that bad!).

the Jindal bandwagon continue

Looks like the buzz is continuing to build. It will be interesting to see if Jindal is half as effective as Obama in leveraging momentum a full four years out?

Refreshing break from situational ethics

Being at business school, it's nice to get a dispatch from a place where situational ethics is not the standard - professional golf. Last week, golfer J.P. Hayes, playing for a spot on the 2009 PGA tour, realized after a round that he had inadvertently hit two shots with the a non-tour-approved ball.

"Hayes had a choice: He could have said nothing and kept playing, with no one aware of his mistake. Or he could turn himself in and let his mistake cost him a 2009 PGA Tour card. He chose the latter. "

Hurray for taking the tough choice, even when the error was inadvertent and arguably did not impact the results. Not wanting to let moral certitude interlope too long in today's world, 50.2% of of 55,000 polled readers state they would not have done the same thing. More here.

Music Industry Thriving

From The Big Picture:

Turns out it's only the record companies that are tanking - artists and consumers are doing fairly well thank you. This lines up with personal experience. I've bought more music, not less, since the dawn of digital media. Services like Rhapsody, Pandora and iTunes have exposed me to a myriad of artists I never would have discovered previously.