Late January 1991.  My high school basketball team from Regina was in a Saskatoon locker room waiting to start the final of a tournament against a tough team from Edmonton.  Our assistant coach was harping on his usual message: the five guys on the court needed to know:

• what play we were running
  
• what each player’s role was, and
  
• what the overall objective was.

As he finished his speech, he coined a new phrase for his message: samepagedness. 

For the rest of the season, before every game, he would stress the importance of samepagedness.  We went on to win the city championship that year and earned a bronze medal at the provincial championships.  Cue Bruce Springsteen singing “Glory Days.”

Fast forward to the present day.  I use this story all the time in my work.  Why?  This captures what we are trying to do in our work with communities and organizations.  Whether developing community sustainability plans or organizational strategic plans, the objective is the same: create samepagedness.  If we are trying to mobilize as much action as possible to address the issues of our time, we need to continually develop samepagedness.  Different members of the community or organization need to know what we are trying to achieve and what everyone’s role is.

18 years after that season, I’m still using that lesson I learned.  I don’t miss those short shorts we wore on that team, but I sure would like some of that hair back.  Mine seems to be disappearing.

- John, April 29, 2009

Labels: collaboration, sustainability

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