Bill Walsh's Standard of Performance

Source: Getlighthouse.com

Bill Walsh was a Super Bowl coach for the SF Forty Niners between 1979 -1988. He leaded them to three successful Super Bowls for those ten years.    

Coach Walsh was quite innovative and was also the architect of the West Coast Offense system. 

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Following is a listing of quotes from his book- The Score Takes Care of Itself :

“I came to the San Francisco 49ers with an overriding priority and specific goal – to implement what I call the Standard of Performance.

“When you know that your peers – others in the organization – demand and expect a lot out of you and you, in turn, out of them, that’s when the sky’s the limit.”

“It was a way of doing things, a leadership philosophy that has as much to do with core values, principles, and ideals as with blocking, tackling, and passing: more to do with the mental than with the physical.

“While I prized preparation, planning, precision, and poise, I also knew that organizational ethics were crucial to ultimate ongoing success.

“It began with this fundamental leadership assertion: Regardless of your specific job, it is vital to our team that you do that job at the highest possible level in all its various aspects, both mental and physical (i.e., good talent with bad attitude equals bad talent).

“There are also the basic characteristics of attitude and action – the new organizational ethos – I tried to teach our team, to put into our DNA.

“Of course, for this to happen the person in charge – whether the head coach, CEO, manager, or assembly line foreman – must exhibit the principles.”

"Scripting was a most effective leadership tool in fair and foul weather. In a very calculated way, I began calling the plays for the game before the game was played."

"The more thorough, the more extensive, the more rehearsed, the better you perform under the pressure of any situation that calls for an immediate decision. ...”

“When you prepare for everything, you’re ready for anything.”

"I was always consumed with the X's and O's of football. It was like a chess game to me. I could see 22 people in my mind when I closed my eyes. I can see exactly where they are, exactly where they are going. If it's not part of your nature, you're never going to make it big. "

- Bill Walsh's, for an AIM's Investment Funds commercial (a part of Investco Funds Group) in 2002

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Following is a listing of comments on Coach Walsh from his peers:

"Bill's thought process was, 'I'm going to take advantage of what you do well.' He was doing a lot of substituting, getting certain matchups. It was fascinating."

- Tony Dungy, Former NFL head coach, who played for Walsh's 1979 Niners team

" ... The biggest thing to come to mind is just how comprehensive his knowledge was. Most people think of Bill Walsh and the West Coast offense, but it was the organization, the personnel evaluation, how to deal with players -- Bill was really the first to start players' programs. Every interactive aspect of the entire organization is what Bill was such a master of. ..."

- Brian Billick, Former Baltimore Ravens head coach and co-author of Walsh's book, "Finding the Winning Edge"

"One of the most important things I learned being around Coach Walsh was that nothing happened because of luck. He planned for every situation and every eventuality. We had an answer for every blitz, every coverage and game situation, because we were challenged to prepare. .." 

- David Shaw, Stanford coach, who played for Walsh at Stanford  

"He would lock himself in a room on Monday night, turn on classical music, and he would create plays. Like a great composer. Alone. And design all the plays."

- Ernie Accorsi  Former GM of the New York Giants, Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Colts

The way we begin games with a "First 15." I firmly believe that this was in line with Bill's love of boxing. This is the idea of starting games by probing your opponent with a variety of plays like a boxer would "stick and move."

- David Shaw

Source: NFL


The Script: The Perfect Leadership Tool

" ... By 1980, the script of Walsh’s opening plays had grown from five plays to twenty-five plays, allowing his team to visualize days before the game how they’d attack their opposition. By the time it matured in San Francisco, Walsh’s offense seemed to be a step or two ahead of its opposition, able to set the tone of the game, take full advantage of the liberalized passing rules and keep the defense off-balance. … ‘American’s Team’ was the most imitated club in football during the seventies. The Cowboys used computerized scouting, and the rest of the league eventually followed suit. The Cowboys used a multiple offense with lots of shifts. The Cowboys based much of their defensive philosophy on computerized tendencies identified from an opponent’s previous games; the rest of league based on computer-generated tendencies identified from an opponent’s previous games.

But Walsh’s twenty-five-plays script subverted all of that. You couldn’t plan for the 49ers because the 49ers didn’t have an identifiable sets of biases on first or second down and they possessed such versatile running backs that they were equally effective running or passing on third down.  .."

Source: More than a Game: The Glorious Present--and the Uncertain Future--of the NFL    By Brian Billick, Michael MacCambridge    Pg 125-126

Other Notes 
During our spare time, our associates are still focused on completing our Scripting Book project.  It has passed the 70% mark. 

Following is an abridged listing of "possible" topics that the book will cover:

• the basics of our Assess, Position and Influence model;  
• the conceptual bridge between our Assess, Position and Influence (API) process model and the script;
• the basics of a starter script (aka. the first 25, openers, drive starters, etc.);
• the basics of a well-developed scripted play;
• the basics of staging and shaping the competition with the integration of orthodox tactics and unorthodox tactics.
• the art and science of "scenario planning and modeling"; and
• the technical differences between our Assess, Position and Influence (API) model and John Boyd's Observation, Orientation, Decision and Action (OODA) model.

Side Notes    
We are still deciding on whether it is necessary to transpose the basics of the Sunzi's "Victory Temple" Paradigm into this book.

Click here and here for more quotes from Coach Walsh.

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Thawing the Competitor's Plan (The Silicon Valley Style)

Following is an interesting storyline from our non-published book on Assessing Strategically. (This book was focused on the strategic and tactical fundamentals that usually lead to the subjugation of the competition.)


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The Japanese Temple Dogs

The following situation reminds me of the "Japanese Temple Dogs" theory. 

(Following is a paraphrase from an old Japanese story)

During the days of ancient Japan, the Shogun's adviser was worried about the laxity of  his sentry guards and the possibility of an invasion from the various rivals. One day, he heard of a samurai priest who exclusively trained sentry dogs to guard various palaces and immediately decided to hire him for the purpose of guarding the exterior of the palace.  

The next day, the adviser met the samurai priest at the front gates of the palace. He curiously noticed that the Samurai priest brought along five dogs instead of the usual four and asked him the following question, "... Since there are four sides to the palace, why do you need five dogs!?  ..."

The samurai replied, "My team of temple dogs is quite unique.  The first four dogs are trained to guard each side of the palace.  During the shift, they also worked quite well as a team regardless of the rotation of their assignments. The fifth dog is also trained to work with them as a backup.  However, this dog is specifically trained to alert and to protect the shogun within the confines of the palace. ...  History has told us many times that most houses (or palaces)  of power usually collapsed from within.  ..."   

The adviser quietly nodded his head in agreement and welcomed him into the palace.

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Instead of playing the amateur's game of competing by price and quality, the smart and experienced strategists are usually focused on understanding the connectivity between their competitors and the terrain .
  
The following example is a good example of how Google is thawing their mobile phone competitor's plan by utilizing a technological version of asymmetrical warfare that de-accelerates their competition's strategic efficiency from within.  ... Fwiw, this approach is quietly implemented through the various macro marketplaces in the information economy.  You just have to pay attention to the ultra level specifics.

. . . There are also interesting rumors on how another Silicon Valley's company was destabilized from within.  But that is another story.

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Google Is Attacking Apple From The Inside Out—And It's Working

Nicholas Carlson | Dec. 31, 2012, 10:48 AM

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-is-attacking-apple-from-the-inside-out-and-its-working-2012-12#ixzz2GoQBJXs3

After years of hammering away at Apple's share of the smartphone market with cheap-to-free Android phones, Google has lately adopted a new tactic to win mobile.

Call it "the worm strategy"—because Google is attacking Apple from the inside out.
Over the past six months, Google has begun to systematically replace core, Apple-made iOS apps with Google-made iOS apps.

• In July, Google launched Chrome for iPhone—a Safari replacement.
• Then, in October came Google Search—which included a voice search feature to compete with Siri.
• In December, Google launched Google Maps to replace Apple Maps, and a much-improved Gmail to replace Apple's core Mail app. 
• It also put out a new YouTube app, to replace the one that Apple removed during its last iOS upgrade.

Google doesn't plan to stop there. 

In fact, it's throwing more resources at iOS development. 
9to5Mac's Jake Smith notes that Google has launched an ad campaign recruiting iOS developers into the company, so that they can “do cool things that matter."

The ad links to a page on Google's internal jobs site—an interview with Google iOS developer Ken Bongort, headlined: "Wait, Google has iOS mobile apps teams?"
In the interview, Bongort talks about all the apps Google has launched on iOS of late, and then concludes: 

"Needless to say, there are similar opportunities to create and design new experiences for all Google apps on the iOS platform."

Google's tactic is working.

The anecdotal evidence: Business Insider gadget editor Steve Kovach says he's put almost all of his Apple-made iOS apps into a hidden folder, preferring to use apps from Google and others instead. Over on AllThingsD, Liz Gannes says 2012 was the year "I basically stopped using iOS apps." 
She says Google apps are one big reason why:

More often than not lately, I find myself using a Google iOS app. I’m now using Google Maps instead of Apple Maps, Chrome instead of Safari, and Gmail instead of Mail. Those three have all made it to my home screen, where they replaced the in-house apps.

For the record, I wouldn’t consider myself a partisan of either Google or Apple — I’m praising Google’s mobile software here, but my primary phone is still an iPhone. I think iOS is a very nice operating system. But the Google utility apps increasingly fit my needs better, for some of the most important and basic things a smartphone does.

Then there's the statistical evidence that Google's inside-out tactic is working.
AppData, which monitors iTunes App Store rankings, reports that the numbers one and two free iPhone apps right now are YouTube and Google Maps.

None of this makes Apple executives very happy.

The world's universally positive reaction to Google Maps—and rush to replace Apple Maps—reportedly has Apple executives "seething." No surprise:  Apple CEO Tim Cookfired iOS software boss Scott Forstall when Forstall refused to apologize for the product's deficiencies.

Meanwhile, this trend has to have Google executives elated.

When Apple launched the iPhone App Store in 2008, it threatened to permanently disrupt Google's most important business: search. 

If the world became one where:

• Businesses directed all their resources toward building apps to be discovered in the iTunes app store instead of building Web pages to be discovered by Google search.
• And consumers went straight to non-Google apps for search problems like where they should and what they should buy.
• Then Google search ads—still more than 95 percent of Google's revenues—would become much less valuable. 

Instead, the world has become one where people there are two kinds of people.
There are Android users, surrounded by Google search, and there are iPhone users, downloading Google apps—all of which make Google search a prominent feature.

# http://www.businessinsider.com/google-is-attacking-apple-from-the-inside-out-and-its-working-2012-12

Succeeding in the Info. Economy with Sunzi's Six Principles and the Bill Walsh's Starter Script

(updated on 02.20.15)

Mark McNeilly, who is a very smart marketing strategist, an insightful military historian and an adjunct professor at University of North Carolina, wrote a pair of books on applying the strategic concepts and principles from Sunzi's Art of War to the business realm and to modern warfare.

The essence of his two books are based on six meta-principles, that summarized the 200+ principles of Sunzi.

Following is the list of those six principles:

1. Win all without fighting: Achieving the objective without destroying it

2. Avoid  Strength, Attack Weakness: Striking where the enemy is most vulnerable

3. Deception and Foreknowledge: Winning the Information War

4. Speed and Preparation: Moving Swiftly to Overcome Resistance

5. Shaping the Enemy: Preparing the Battlefield

6. Character-Based Leadership: Leading by Example

- SunTzu and The Art of Modern Warfare

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His first book demonstrates how his six principles were successfully used in various business situations.   ...  It is a good book for those who are strategically-minded. We highly recommended his books on Sunzi (Sun Tzu) and George Washington. These books are great reading especially during a long weekend.

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Our Compass Project 
In terms of planning a field operational strategy, we concluded that McNeilly's six principles are quite indispensable when or if one possesses relevant strategic experience and ultra-class strategic assessment skills.

During our research, we have carefully looked at it and transformed those six principles to a macro set of meta-principles by connecting it to other principles from other arcane Chinese classics.  Then we connected it to the famous Bill Walsh's Starter's Script and other unique but strategic models.

The Six Strategic Principles of Compass A/E  Process Model 

1.  Ready. Aim. Fire
To achieve the path of least resistance, one focuses their resources and their efforts toward the origin of the competitor's inefficiency while deciding on when to exploit it with zero to minimal impact to one's own team's. This step can be achieved when one knows the configuration of their Big Tangible Picture (BTP).

2. Focus. Focus. Hocus Pocus 
Focusing one's strengths toward onto the weaknesses of the competition with the tactical "pretext" option while avoiding the influence of the competition.

3. Know Early. Act Now
Knowing the strategic reality of the competition in each tactical situation and capitalizing on their inefficiency.

4.  Be Quick. Don't Hurry 
The strategically prepared, urgency-driven team accelerates forward to the target especially in an up-tempo no huddle mode especially when the comprehension of the technical weaknesses behind their opponent's inefficiency is fully recognized. 

5.  Stage and Shape the Competition 
Implement a sequence of tactics that influences the competition to behave in an absolute mode in a specific game situation before the "game-changer" tactic is ever implemented.

6. Lead by Deed 
By successfully following the PACE guidelines of the script and implementing the scripted tactical plays, the team starts to execute properly. The incremental momentum gain becomes possible when the team believes in their own execution, their teammates, the strategy (the motive and the methods) behind the script, the field strategist and the backroom strategists.

When the execution of the script works, the entire team becomes confident in the wisdom, the credibility, the benevolence, the courage and the discipline of the principals behind the script development.

Psychologically, the continuity of this momentum gain creates wins. Conclusively, the continuity of this positive practice generates more streaks of positive wins.

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Strong and smart leadership and the mastery of this well-devised scheme-based tool usually play a significant role in a winning culture.

copyright 2013-2015: Compass360 Consulting Group, All Rights Reserved.


Some More Notes on the Compass Book Project
Our book integrates the basics of Bill Walsh's Starter Script and the principles from Sunzi, Jiang Tai Gong, and other successful strategists and demonstrates how to utilize it in a chaotic strategic situation while being mindful of when and how the competition adjusts to the implementer's script.

It also utilizes our Assess, Position and Influence model that is a conceptual superset of Colonel John Boyd's Observation, Orientation, Decision and Action (OODA) strategic methodology.

More to Come

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Fishing in San Francisco (A Modern Day Version of Jiang Tai Gong)

source: sfgate . com

Mr. George Revel of Lost Coast Outfitters is a smart businessman who loves fishing. He assessed his terrain in terms of the social-economic factors by understanding the social economic demographics. 

Conclusively, he decided to pursue the big fish. 

"He is casting for the big fish.  ... In the urban environment, you see fly fishermen who are doctors, lawyers or in finance,” he said.

Those are his key demographic. They drop by the shop, handle the cool gear and maybe even head up to the roof to try some casts out toward the San Francisco skyline.

And often, once they do all that, Revel has them where he wants them.

They’re hooked. ..."


Click here to read the rest of this interesting article (from SFGate.com) on a modern day Jiang Tai Gong .

A Few Notes on Jiang Tai Gong 

The Six Secret Teachings is a favorite book for the serious strategists who wanted to understand the Big Tangible Picture (BTP) of an extreme competitive terrain for over two thousand years. Those who are involved in the modern consulting/ strategy game, could learn something from this classical book. 

The Origin

In the Zhou dynasty of the 11th century BC, an elderly, eccentric advisor known as Jiang Tai Gong wrote a book that outlined a set of principles relating to government and warfare through the reported conversations with Emperor Wen and his successor, Emperor Wu.

Throughout Chinese history, there were many "secret teachings" and "confidential notebooks and essays" in many areas. Labeling these certain items under the category as a secret makes them more desirable as they seem scarce and harder to access. To access these so-called secrets typically requires investment that leads to greater commitment, as the student acts to sustain consistency with their investment.

(There is a long range benefit from learning from this "exclusive" manual. We could tell you. But it is better if you read it.) 

Chapter One: King Wen's Teacher 

The first chapter introduces King Wen and his meeting with his teacher, Jiang Tai Gong who utilizes the analogy of fishing to offer learning points.

He talked about the importance of being a 'True Men of Worth' and that it is the type of person that any wise ruler should be. By speaking in this manner , the Tai Gong immediately suggested that he could be his close adviser. The king immediately understood the value of Jiang Tai Gong's words (and being advised by his scribe), accepted this relationship.

The Art of Bait and Lure

Chapter One briefly talks about catching "the big fish." Regardless of the requirement of the big bait and a strong line to catch big fish. It is significant to be committed to this process. 

If you are cautious or offer only simple bait, the big fish will detect your lack of commitment and either ignore you or capitalize on your weakness.

This section includes a direct reminder to the ruler to be kind to his people, pointing out how followership is thus created. The lesson that many of today's leaders still need to learn is that there is a base human nature towards the utilization of punishment and reward others when motivation is needed . It requires more skill to utilize kindness that leads people to truly want to do as you ask.  This enables you to seldomly command the people to do your bidding.

Lessons

• A true man of worth is usually ambitious. (Using the fisherman analogy) the fishermen of worth pursued the whales and the sharks while the common fisherman have ordinary and common goals and  he catches only guppies and minnows. 
• True men are drawn together by common interest in significant affairs.
• To lure a big fish, one needs a big but attractive bait and a strong fishing line. This may require significant commitment from the ambitious leader. Simple, glittering rewards only attract the small fry.
• A worthy (or sage)  ruler utilizes many approaches that play to the emotions of his counter parts. He shows humanity, virtue and righteousness by sharing, sparing, relieving and eliminating hardship. This is the manner to create followers.

Side Notes 
Other future posts on Jiang Tai Gong will include brief notes on the gist of each relevant chapter of this classic.  

For more detail on this chapter and the full translation of Six Secret Teachings, read Dr. Ralph D. Sawyer's Six Secret Teachings or Seven Military Classics of Ancient China (1993). 

In the age of instant information and immediate gratification, some people do not know what is tangible anymore.  The truth that originated from the classics, has never changed.  One just have to be mindful of the importance of the components within their terrain and beyond.

Scripting to a Victory (The Bill Walsh Way)

(updated at 15:15 hrs)

One of the most interesting traditions/practices in sports is the scripting of the game plan.  From the 70's to the early 90's, Coach Bill Walsh innovated and utilized the concept of scripting the first 25 plays in his games. Then employing the results as a springboard to dominate his competition.

This process model has assisted him to win three Super Bowls and two college bowl games. 

His many prodigies have also employed it to win their shares of high stakes games and championships too.


The Basics of Scripting
Scripting is one of those unique practices that is worth learning and using. This practice enables the implementers to maximize their level of strategic efficiency.  It is quite easy to learn,  but moderately difficult to implement for the obvious competitive reasons.

Retrospectively, the completion of a script usually provides the principal script developer/chief decision makers the feeling of self-preparation. It also gave them a level of confidence.

The basic essentials are: a clipboard, some lined paper, some good writing pens (with red ink, blue ink, black ink and green ink), patience, persistence. a well-temperature room with an extreme state of quietude, a coffee pot of warm water, some tea leaves and the skill of assessing, positioning and influencing. 

Having an assortment of white boards, a tablet PC and/or a smart phone is not always essential for script development.  But it never hurts to have them.

The Compass Project 
We are currently working on a book project that focuses on the fundamentals of scripting through our macro process model of Assessing, Positioning and Influencing. 

This book is focused on the fundamentals of shaping and staging the competition through the application of an array of Chinese strategic principles and stratagems by scripting the right meta-tactical plays.  

How to Script One's Gameplan
One needs to know the objective, the approach, their means and the modes of each competitor before deciding on the different types of scripted plays and the order of the scripted plays.  

This approach enables the offensive play caller to decide on the approach for staging the competitor for a knockdown or a knockout while utilizing their opponent's proclivity as one of the key indicators. There are other key indicators that will be discussed in our current book project .

The Problem of Losing One's View of the Big Tangible Picture (BTP)
In the heat of the battle, some people usually forget the specifics behind their objectives and begin to panic while mis-comprehending the circumstances for staying on course or exiting from the gameplan. 

Our solution is the usage of the Compass PACE guidelines. It guides the offensive play callers to know when to stay on course or when to change direction in certain situations.

Building the PACE Guidelines

The development of the PACE guidelines before the scripting of the array of tactical plays, allows the chief strategic decision makers to understand what is their target and what direction they are pursuing. 

What are the PACE Guidelines

• Priority Objectives: This category focuses on the ranking and the specifics of the targets
• Approach: This category focuses on the definition of the strategic timing points for being efficient and flexible
• Condition: This category focuses on the possibility of certain positive case scenarios and the contingency plans 
• Exception: This category focuses on the possibility of certain negative case scenarios and the contingency plans 

This tool also allows the offensive play caller to know when to stay on course or when to change direction.

We will delineates the psychological reasoning for using the PACE guidelines in a future post.

Identifying the math and physics behind anything relevant is sometimes easy. 

Establishing the Adjustment of the Big Tangible Picture
Once the scripted play is called, the offensive play caller knows something about the defense while the defensive play caller might know something about the state of the offensive team.  Based on the previously called play and other factors, the defensive play caller could possibility figure out the offensive play caller's next possible play. 

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave...when first we practice to deceive.”  
- Walter Scott, Marmion

Once the allotment of the scripted plays are called, the game of cat and mouse begins.  The offensive play caller might decide to recirculate some of the previous scripted plays or run a variational change off those plays.

A Mini-Test Case of a Scripted Play 

From a Opening (Starter) Plays Script  

Situation: 1st down and 10 or 2nd down and short, on one's own 30 yard line.

After implementing a quick trap to strong side from the pro set formation (slot left, TE Right) on the second play (regardless of the result in some instances), the offensive play caller might signal the same play with either one  of the following options in the 26th play:

• same run play with a different set of shift and motion by the wide receivers
• a play action pass with a five step drop; and  
• a play action pass with a QB rolling out to the weakside.  

Each option is depended on the previous response and the projected response of the defense.  The strategic state and the strategic efficiency of the competition usually determines the manner of play calling.

Side note: Most playcallers preferred the 15-20 plays script model for the psychological reason that they feel that they would have a good read on the competition's intent and methods.  A few might run a 25 plays script for the obvious reason of exposing the probable deception lead by the defense.  

Those who are deeply skilled in the art and science of strategic shaping and staging, preferred the 25 plays option. 

Comments From the Compass Desk 
Regardless of the array of innovative concepts that Coach Walsh has contributed to the game of football, the script is one of the most useful tools that could be applied to modern day life.

In an unpredictable setting, the tool enables the implementer to strategize in terms of contingencies. 

Click here on some of the basics of scripting 

As mentioned before, the smart strategist could build a script with the following items: a quiet and well-temperatured room; a ream of lined paper; colored pens and a good set of assessment skills. (In some instances, high tech tools are not needed.)

There is a psychological reason for using pen and paper for the initial stage. Those who have seriously studied Yi Quan or Taijiquan, would understand why. 

# You do know how to assess. Do you?  

Whenever you watch a football game, ask yourself if the offensive coordinator is calling a well-scripted game. 

Side Note
We didn't published our book on assessing strategically through the employment of Sunzi's strategic principles because of the quantity of Sunzi's type  of books that were being pushed in the published books marketplace.  Most of these books were quite average or below average regarding to their concept of applications and new ideas. 

Some of them repeated the same obvious points- "if they do this, you do this" type of approach without ever emphasizing on the importance of comprehending the strategic state of the situation. They also outlined the same old idealistic rules of thumb.

For the apparent reasons, the approach of utilizing the rules of thumbs and the simplification of perspective is for amateurs.

These writers have not thoroughly learned the process of "assessing strategically", one of the holy grails behind the Sunzi's essay. Some aspects of this skill can be found in Jiang Tai Gong's Six Secret Teachings. 

Our intent was not to get lost in the abyss of high noise and low signal.
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What makes our book unique is our focus on the connectivity between the scripted plays to the categories of adjustment plays and situational plays. 

Whenever the book is published, we hope that you like it.

A Few More Side Notes
Click here for a field level example of assessing, positioning and influencing.

For the Niners Faithful, we recommended this great book by Daniel Brown- 100 Things 49ers fans should know and do before they die  and Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison and Craig Walsh's book -  The Score Takes Care of Itself.  

Our associates at Cook Ding's Kitchen have always reminded the novices and the neophytes that one cannot successfully strategize if he or she is not able to stay focused on their immediate objective. They also reminded them that the reading of the Art of War does not help either.  

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