The Way of Strategy (12): The Script (2)

note: The picture is from Coachoffice.com

Sidebar: This post will appeal to the football fans.

As a reminder, the scripting action only works when one has properly assessed the opposition.

Q: How does one used the script to set up the opposition?
A: Some of the scripted run plays are used to set up for various play action pass. While other scripted pass plays are used to set for special run plays.

For example, the offensive coordinator might call a quick sweep on the second play, with the flanker involved in a fake reverse motion, (then a possible flea flicker). After the QB hands off the ball to the running back. He continues with a fake weakside rollout, with a motion of a pass toward a receiver who is sprinting down the field. After the 25 plays are implemented, the offensive coordinator tells the QB to signals this play, with some technical differences where he fakes the handoff, rolls out the weakside, passes the ball to the open man.

In the case of the pass play,, the offensive coordinator might call a short slant pass to the flanker isolated on the weakside. Later in the game, under similar situation, the QB implements the same play, fakes the pass and hands off the ball to the blocking halfback on a slow draw.

As mentioned before, the premise of the script is to reveal the opposition's tendencies that the implementer can exploit later.

In future posts, we will focus on transferring the assessed project data into a strategic overview and an operational script.

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Sidebar: There are many ways to set up the opposition. In Ancient China, the military professionals used stratagems that can be found in the 100 Unorthodox Strategies book. We will discuss the topic of unorthodox strategies in a future post.

The Way of Strategy (11): The Script

update on 08.16.2014

Click here for an technical update of this post.

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Football season is here. Armchair quarterbacks rejoice.Beside the utilization of Chinese strategy principles as a process, one of our favorite tools is "The Script."
 
"The Script" is a game preparation and implementation tool that was invented by Bill Walsh, an American head football coach of the San Francisco 49ers and Stanford University, during which time he popularized the West Coast offense. Walsh went 102–63–1 with the 49ers, winning ten of his fourteen postseason games along with six division titles, three NFC Championship titles, and three Super Bowls. He was named the NFL's Coach of the Year in 1981 and 1984.

The Intent of The Script 
The purpose of The Script is to see exactly how the other team reacts to each offensive play at the opening stage of the game. The strategist would use this information to plan the offensive strategy for the remainder of the game. Regardless of the game situation, the disciples of the West Coast Offense are trained to stick to The Script regardless of the down, the distance and the defensive alignment, except for the fourth down. 
Applying the Script Before the Game 
Idealistically,the offensive coordinator informs the players "The Script" one or two practices before game day. On the last practice, the team rehearses "The Script." Beside eliminating anxiety (rather than create anxiety) among the players. the offense coordinator discovers whether the players are able to master those plays and decides whether to adjust the technicalities of the play.

Overall, it requires a great deal of experience, discipline and emotional intelligence to run "The Script" tool.

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The Master of the Game PlanPreparation and Execution Perfected



Bill Walsh, ever the innovator, conceived a plan, now routine in the NFL, to "script" in advance the offensive plays he would call early in a game.

Walsh still remembers the criticism and skepticism from the NFL coaching establishment that greeted him in the 1970s when, as an offensive assistant with the Cincinnati Bengals, he started scripting plays. All the planning could be done in the office during the week instead of on the sidelines during the frenzy of a game.

With a script, the offensive players could devote more study time to plays that definitely would be used in the game, as opposed to studying an entire game plan that invariably included a bunch of plays that would not be called.

"It got to the point where our offensive team really wanted to know those plays," Walsh recalled. "The players really appreciate the idea that you're giving them a (head) start on the game. You can sleep easier, you have more confidence going into the game, and you're more at ease.

For the coaches, you can feel comfortable that the game is almost on automatic pilot when it starts." "You know what's going to be called and there's no reason to make a mistake," veteran tight end Shannon Sharpe said of the system in Denver, where coach Mike Shanahan scripts the first 15 offensive plays every week. "You already know if (the defense does) this, who we're going to. So that makes your job a lot easier."

Just about every team in the NFL now uses some form of scripting. Walsh used to do 25 plays, but most teams now script about 15 plays. There are, of course, some misconceptions about scripting. While there might be a long script of plays, they are not called blindly in order. "Would you run 25 in order? No," Walsh said. "Let's say, of the 25, you'd run 18 or 19 sort of in order. If something really worked or you saw something in the defense, you'd go back to (a play).

To me, it was just sort of a safety net because there's so much emotion to start the game, you want to think clearly, and this, in a sense, forces you to stay with a regimen that you clinically planned prior to the game.""The scripting saved us because I couldn't think," he said. "It was minus-35 wind chill, and there was no way I could look at a game plan or pull something out of my head. All I wanted to do was run for cover, go in where it was warm, for survival. So in that case, the plan was what saved us."

Excerpts from NFL Insider/NFL.com article from 2002 by Ira Miller.
http://www.squidoo.com/billwalsh



Questions and Answers on Walsh's Starter Script
Q: Most coaches run a 15 play script. Why did Walsh utilized a 25 play script?
A: The aim of the 15 play script is to immediately attack the tendencies and the physical weaknesses of the opposition's defense. The 25 play script focused on revealing the entire opposition's defensive arsenal while pinpointing their true weaknesses. We believed that Walsh liked the idea of forcing the opposition to expose their arsenal.Q: What was in Walsh's script?
A: A balance of pass plays and run plays that have never appeared in previous games. Walsh would occasionally throw in one or two gadget plays that the opposition has never seen before.

We have heard one former Niners player referred "The 25 Plays" as "The 25 Lies." The story behind that statement is based on that the opposition became too focused on stopping Walsh's 25 play script that they forgot to focus on their own game.Retrospectively, it is also a psychological gaming tool and an "informational feedback strategy" tool.

The implementation of a 25 play script requires a person with great patience, control and strategic insight. Bill Walsh was that person.Rarely does anyone ever talk about the keys for the following:

• when to stay with the script;
• when to leave the script; and
• when to return to it.

The amateurs think that they know what "The Script" is about. However there are a few who understand its true range and the reason why it works.

In the football business, the Script is used by many coaches. Our observations tell us that many of them do not possess the strategic training to use it properly. At the same time, some of the quarterbacks are not trained to run "The Script."

The most difficult challenge for most football teams is to run "The Script" from a no-huddle mode. We will touch on that topic in a future post.


Summary 
The key to building The Script is to properly assess the competition and the grand situation. In our future book project, we will focus on this topic
Being a fan of world class strategists and an implementer of Best Practices, we recommended to our clients to script their operational strategy. In future, we will touch more on "The Script."

We believed that this set of arcane knowledge is usually given to those who are operating on a "need to know" basis.to those under the clause of "they are worthy."

We at C360 usually apply our version of the script in all of our operational situations. 

 If you are interested in securing an abridged version of our Compass Script, please send us a request at www.formspring.me/Compass360CG

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49ers on cusp of new era - or total failure
Gwen Knapp, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, September 13, 2009

(09-12) 20:41 PDT -- The 49ers' seventh offensive coordinator in seven years used some interesting language late last week. "We always script the first 12 'openers,' " Jimmy Raye said, "the first third down and short, the first third and medium, the first short-yardage play."

We always? Until late January, Raye had not been connected to the 49ers since 1977, when he served as receivers coach for a single year.

He was gone when Bill Walsh appeared two seasons later, transforming the franchise and establishing the principle of scripting the opening plays on offense. By "we always," Raye meant all of his own offenses over the years, from Los Angeles to Tampa Bay to Washington. Like so many other coaches, he said, he must have borrowed the philosophy from Walsh and made it his own.

Today's 49ers have no traditions worth preserving. Small remnants from the dynastic Walsh era may survive, but after six dreary seasons, the phrase "we always" can legitimately precede nothing good. (We always lose at least nine games a season. We always change offensive coordinators.)

... The 49ers would be linked to Walsh only through the brief mentoring he provided for Singletary and the ripple effect that brought scripted openers to Raye. But they would also disengage from the last six years, leaving the threshold of Lost Franchises.

E-mail Gwen Knapp at gknapp@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/13/SPHA19MBJ5.DTLThis article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

# updated on 09/01/2011

The Way of Strategy (8): Preparation Precedes Performance

This best practice of "preparation precedes performance" process was successfully used by Paul Brown and Bill Walsh. The objective of this exercise is to mentally prepare the players for practice.

Beside emphasizing the fundamentals, the players understand their role and responsibilities for each play. This training practice also establishes discipline and makes the players accountable.

If the players can't learn in the climate controlled setting of a classroom, what makes people think that they can learn under the hot sun of Napa, California?

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Raiders two-a-days: Hitting books, not each other

David White, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, August 1, 2009

(07-31) 21:55 PDT -- Take the old school of two-a-day practices, add the new school of football teaching, and that explains all this standing around at Raiders training camp.

Raiders coach Tom Cable's first NFL training camp is like no other experienced by anyone on the 80-man roster, from rookie Darrius Heyward-Bey to 17-year veteran Lorenzo Neal.

Instead of doing what normal NFL teams do at training camp - strap up and hit somebody - the Raiders are spending the first four days of camp in an outdoor classroom.

No pads. No hitting. No plays run. No sweat broken. Just lots of teaching and, Cable hopes, lots of learning.

"It seemed like it was weird at first," linebacker Isaiah Ekejiuba said Friday. "But you go through it and it's a great concept."

This is Cable's big idea: Teach the players what they are supposed to do, down to the last detail, before cutting them loose to do it on the field. Injuries are limited, if only because it is near impossible to get hurt practicing at the speed of jog.

"It's a chance to really sort it out and work through it before all of a sudden you put the combative part into it," said Cable, who went through this before as a college coach. "Remember, the NFL season starts now and it hopefully ends sometime in February for you.

"The human body can only take so many car crashes."

A sampling of what is going on between water breaks behind the Napa Valley Marriott:

Beat the can: The defensive line goes against upturned garbage cans. Everyone gets in their assigned spot, then some of them go into motion to a different point of attack before the imagined snap.

Change that call: The quarterbacks line up in a corner to work on audibles. Quarterbacks coach Paul Hackett gives a defensive situation. The quarterbacks don't just call out an audible, but they bark it out side to side and make hand signals as if they were actually communicating to teammates.

# A deceptive protocol emphasized by Bill Walsh

Air ball: The passing offense faces the passing defense in seven on sevens. The receivers, tight ends and running backs run full routes in coverage, but the quarterback doesn't throw the ball. At one point, defensive coordinator John Marshall - as if out of habit - calls out, "It's time for a pick!"

Short run-through: The run game is choreographed in team noncontact drills. The ball is snapped and handed off to a running back, followed by an instant whistle. Coaches make sure everyone lined up right and went to the right spot. Offsides and false starts were an unusual occurrence, given the slo-mo circumstances.

Cable hopes this format allows them to get those mistakes out of their system before the physical stuff begins.

"This is unique because we don't have the stress, we don't get beat up, we're really learning and relearning," Cable said. "Right on pace."

E-mail David White at dwhite@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/01/SPH319286I.DTL

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-raiders-cablescamp&prov=ap&type=lgns

Best Practices of Desktop Strategists (7): Always be timely

What are your best practices for managing time?

Knowing the "best practices for managing time" does not always enable one to be effective in their actions. Without the conscious understanding of why timeliness is important, will only deter the amateur strategists from reaching their goal effectively.

The Art of War emphasized that the objective of a timely execution is to maneuver toward the advantage, promptly and precisely.

"To complete your objectives and succeed in your offensives, but fail to exploit these achievements is ominous and may be described as 'wasteful delay'. It is said that the wise strategist deliberate it and the good strategist embodies it in his actions. - Art of War , 12

Best Practices of Desktop Strategists (6)

From our experience, we have seen a few people who can think, strategize and implement regardless of the technology, the distance and the grand settings. We referred to them as world class strategists.

These people can also stay focused on the current objective while minding the grand picture. It is a rare skill. Does your team possess this set of skills?

Following are some of the other questions that we usually ask our clients:

• How does your team look at your projects and plans?
• Do they know what is the grand picture for your plan?
• Can your team view your entire plan from a top down view?
• Do they understand your plan from a "bottom up" perspective?
• Can your team see the tactical specifics for each milestone?
• Can your team see what is ahead after each completed milestone?
• If a strategic change in one milestone occurs, can they also see the consequential strategic change from one milestone to the following milestones?
• Regardless of the amount of critical information at your team's fingertips, do you sometimes feel that your team feel overwhelmed by an information overload that they are caught in a phase of paralysis by analysis?
• Do you feel that your team is not receiving the quality information, that they cannot make a good decision?
  

Poor quality of information usually prevents one from gaining the strategic insight of the current situation.

• How many times in your professional career, has your team been able to instinctively perform your projects without fear and uncertainty?
• Has your team ever automatically connect the dots and reap the rewards?

Technology comes. Technology goes. It is just a tool that does specialized tasks. Nothing more. Nothing less.

To prevail in the global economy, one needs the dual skills of analyzing the information and connecting the dots.

• Does your team possess that set of skills?
• If they cannot effectively connect the dots, will they reap the rewards?
• Is your team still able to effectively compete in spite of the situation?
  

If not, it is time for you and your team to reconsider the strategic process of seeing the grand picture.

Conclusively, it should always be the plan that runs the technology, not the other way around.
Do you have a process to build that specific plan?

If not, you should contact us at service[@tt]collaboration360[dott].com.

Collaboration360 Consultants (C360 Consultants). Copyright:2009 © All rights reserved. Copying, posting and reproduction in any form (without prior consent) is an infringement of copyright.

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Beyond BlackBerry, high-tech execs shun gadgets
Fri May 22, 2009 4:13pm EDT

By Franklin Paul

NEW YORK (Reuters) - You'd think the leaders of the world's biggest and coolest tech companies would be total gadget freaks, 'tricorder'-carrying whiz kids sporting the latest doodads months before the masses.

Think again.

Top brass and chief thinkers from companies from Web upstart Twitter to "Big Blue" IBM told the Reuters Global Technology Summit that, when not developing "the next big thing," they turn to hobbies similar to that of non-geeks.

They read books and go fishing. Very un-Star Trek, eh?

"I'm not actually a gadget freak. And I'm not a computer freak. I'm a physicist," said Eli Harari, chief executive of SanDisk Inc, which makes those ubiquitous fingernail-sized digital memory cards and USB thumb drives.

"I love technology. But I don't like gadgets. I rarely use my notebook PC -- and I type with two fingers," he said.

Popular folklore and network TV, fuel a belief in a high-tech world of anti-social genius's like Sheldon from "The Big Bang Theory" or Jack Bauer of Fox's hit show "24", who have critical data at their fingertips via powerful gadgets.

But most of the summit guests admitted that the only super device they wield is a mobile phone -- Research in Motion's Blackberry or Apple Inc's iPhone -- with most saying they would suffer without them. ...

BOOKS OR KINDLES?
Technology executives said their busy lifestyles don't leave much time for dabbling with sophisticated devices that do not pertain to building their own businesses.

"I like to get away from electronics," said John Chen, CEO of business software provider of Sybase. "I have found that very constantly grinding (is) quite stressful."

Like many of his peers, Chen seeks respite in the printed word. But two camps are evolving, now that Amazon.com Inc's Kindle digital reader has captured the fancy of executives bored with sitting around airports.

"This morning I got on a plane to come down here," Corning Inc Chief Financial Officer Jim Flaws said. "I had checked to make sure it downloads the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. I can read both of them on my BlackBerry, but it's a little easier to read on your Kindle, which is...bigger."

Venture capitalist Tim Draper, a man accustomed to writing million-dollar checks, said he was itching to buy a Kindle, but was too frugal to do it yet.

"I have a little bit of Kindle envy," he said. "I have a Sony Reader, and I have a whole bunch of books on it. I'm so cheap, I want to be sure I've read all of those books before I buy a Kindle."

Sybase's Chen, a self-described old-fashioned guy, says he will pass on Kindle. "If I get on a plane for a long ride, I read a book. I can't stand Kindle. It's not an Amazon issue -- I like the feel of a book."

The aversion to toting gadgets doesn't mean that tech leaders aren't wowed by their electronic abilities. Take, for example, one new take on an activity thousands of years old.

"The last thing I bought was a fish finder -- it's amazing technology," Ralph de la Vega, AT&T Inc's mobile chief, said of a device made by satellite navigation tool maker Garmin Ltd . "I don't know how people used to fish before -- you had to have a lot of stored knowledge."

"You can go to a place, scout it out and say 'I think there's fish over there!' Its such a better thing to do than just casting a fly, and you don't know where the fish are."

He pulls out his other favorite device -- an iPhone -- to show off a snapshot of his prized catch, a Bass. ...

(Reporting by Franklin Paul, editing by Tiffany Wu, Leslie Gevirtz)

http://www.reuters.com/article/GlobalTechnology09/idUSTRE54L63T20090522

Best Practices of Desktop Strategists (5)

One cannot assess and strategize if he cannot focus. When one has the "world class" focus, he sees the connections within his grand settings from a top down view. Gaining the view of the entire grand settings enables one to make better decisions.

If one cannot focus, their ability to make proper decisions will diminish.

It has nothing to do with the abundant of information that he or she gets.


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May 5, 2009
Findings
Ear Plugs to Lasers: The Science of Concentration
By JOHN TIERNEY

Imagine that you have ditched your laptop and turned off your smartphone. You are beyond the reach of YouTube, Facebook, e-mail, text messages. You are in a Twitter-free zone, sitting in a taxicab with a copy of “Rapt,” a guide by Winifred Gallagher to the science of paying attention.

The book’s theme, which Ms. Gallagher chose after she learned she had an especially nasty form of cancer, is borrowed from the psychologist William James: “My experience is what I agree to attend to.” You can lead a miserable life by obsessing on problems. You can drive yourself crazy trying to multitask and answer every e-mail message instantly.

Or you can recognize your brain’s finite capacity for processing information, accentuate the positive and achieve the satisfactions of what Ms. Gallagher calls the focused life. It can sound wonderfully appealing, except that as you sit in the cab reading about the science of paying attention, you realize that ... you’re not paying attention to a word on the page.

The taxi’s television, which can’t be turned off, is showing a commercial of a guy in a taxi working on a laptop — and as long as he’s jabbering about how his new wireless card has made him so productive during his cab ride, you can’t do anything productive during yours.

Why can’t you concentrate on anything except your desire to shut him up? And even if you flee the cab, is there any realistic refuge anymore from the Age of Distraction?

I put these questions to Ms. Gallagher and to one of the experts in her book, Robert Desimone, a neuroscientist at M.I.T. who has been doing experiments somewhat similar to my taxicab TV experience. He has been tracking the brain waves of macaque monkeys and humans as they stare at video screens looking for certain flashing patterns.

When something bright or novel flashes, it tends to automatically win the competition for the brain’s attention, but that involuntary bottom-up impulse can be voluntarily overridden through a top-down process that Dr. Desimone calls “biased competition.” He and colleagues have found that neurons in the prefrontal cortex — the brain’s planning center — start oscillating in unison and send signals directing the visual cortex to heed something else.

These oscillations, called gamma waves, are created by neurons’ firing on and off at the same time — a feat of neural coordination a bit like getting strangers in one section of a stadium to start clapping in unison, thereby sending a signal that induces people on the other side of the stadium to clap along. But these signals can have trouble getting through in a noisy environment.

“It takes a lot of your prefrontal brain power to force yourself not to process a strong input like a television commercial,” said Dr. Desimone, the director of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at M.I.T. “If you’re trying to read a book at the same time, you may not have the resources left to focus on the words.”

Now that neuroscientists have identified the brain’s synchronizing mechanism, they’ve started work on therapies to strengthen attention. In the current issue of Nature, researchers from M.I.T., Penn and Stanford report that they directly induced gamma waves in mice by shining pulses of laser light through tiny optical fibers onto genetically engineered neurons. In the current issue of Neuron, Dr. Desimone and colleagues report progress in using this “optogenetic” technique in monkeys.

Ultimately, Dr. Desimone said, it may be possible to improve your attention by using pulses of light to directly synchronize your neurons, a form of direct therapy that could help people with schizophrenia and attention-deficit problems (and might have fewer side effects than drugs). If it could be done with low-wavelength light that penetrates the skull, you could simply put on (or take off) a tiny wirelessly controlled device that would be a bit like a hearing aid.

In the nearer future, neuroscientists might also help you focus by observing your brain activity and providing biofeedback as you practice strengthening your concentration. Researchers have already observed higher levels of synchrony in the brains of people who regularly meditate.

Ms. Gallagher advocates meditation to increase your focus, but she says there are also simpler ways to put the lessons of attention researchers to use. Once she learned how hard it was for the brain to avoid paying attention to sounds, particularly other people’s voices, she began carrying ear plugs with her. When you’re trapped in a noisy subway car or a taxi with a TV that won’t turn off, she says you have to build your own “stimulus shelter."




She recommends starting your work day concentrating on your most important task for 90 minutes. At that point your prefrontal cortex probably needs a rest, and you can answer e-mail, return phone calls and sip caffeine (which does help attention) before focusing again. But until that first break, don’t get distracted by anything else, because it can take the brain 20 minutes to do the equivalent of rebooting after an interruption. (For more advice, go to nytimes.com/tierneylab.)

Multitasking is a myth, Ms. Gallagher said. You cannot do two things at once. The mechanism of attention is selection: it’s either this or it’s that. She points to calculations that the typical person’s brain can process 173 billion bits of information over the course of a lifetime.

People don’t understand that attention is a finite resource, like money, she said. Do you want to invest your cognitive cash on endless Twittering or Net surfing or couch potatoing? You’re constantly making choices, and your choices determine your experience, just as William James said.

During her cancer treatment several years ago, Ms. Gallagher said, she managed to remain relatively cheerful by keeping in mind James’s mantra as well as a line from Milton: The mind is its own place, and in itself/ Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.

When I woke up in the morning, Ms. Gallagher said, I’d ask myself: Do you want to lie here paying attention to the very good chance you’ll die and leave your children motherless, or do you want to get up and wash your face and pay attention to your work and your family and your friends? Hell or heaven it’s your choice.”

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/science/05tier.html

Best Practices of Desktop Strategists (4)

Another best practice is knowing how to assess almost anything regardless of its settings.

Regardless of the arena, one must know what are the standards and the ranking of valued data points.

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Different Approach

The 49ers' approach in building the roster is far different than it used to be. No longer does the team adhere to the demands necessitated by the west coast offense and they are no longer run by the coaching staff. The team was once a coach-dominated organization, ultimately answering to the head coach and the man who invented their player acquisition system, Bill Walsh.

The 49ers have moved on from the Bill Walsh draft philosophy.

The late Bobb McKittrick, Walsh's long-time offensive line coach said the scouts did the ground work and brought all the information to the coaches. Then, they decided who to draft or sign in free agency. McKittrick also said that Walsh provided his coaches with broad leeway on whom they went after, because, ultimately, Walsh knew, for example, that McKittrick knew more about the offensive line than he did.

/// Even the genius knew that he does not know everything

Now, with a former scout in charge of the draft and free agency, the scouting department basically decides the roster and if the report from Sports Illustrated is to be believed, they don't necessarily tell the position coaches. S.I.'s Jim Trotter wrote that position coaches weren't consulted about the team's free-agent signings this year, specifically wide receiver Brandon Jones.

The coach dominated system keeps the staff more engaged, because if they're picking their own players, they are completely invested in seeing those players succeed and they feel more integral to the team's success.

Scouts, however, can provide a more subjective analysis of players.

Back in the Walsh era, the team looked for different types of players. The west coast offense wanted small, quick, intelligent offensive linemen, big wide receivers, dual-threat tight ends, and fullbacks who could catch.

The requirements often resulted in the 49ers competing by themselves for players. When Jerry Rice ran a slow 40-yard dash time, some teams dropped him on their draft boards. The 49ers didn't care. While teams increasingly looked for big, bruising linemen, the 49ers were content with the sub-300 pounder. That's why they were able to get Jesse Sapolu in the 11th round and Derrick Deese off the street. Rarely in the McKittrick era, did the 49ers expend a pick in the first three rounds on a lineman.

At quarterback, Walsh wanted accuracy, decision-making and intangibles. One former 49ers scout once said that if a passer could throw a ball 42 yards, that's all the arm strength needed for Walsh's offense (apparently Walsh's longest pass play went 35 yards, and then add in a seven step drop and you get 42 yards).

Ron Wolf knew how to build championships.

The current regime is much more from the Ron Wolf school, the former personnel man who won Super Bowls for the Raiders and Packers. Current general manager Scot McCloughan worked for Wolf in Green Bay.

Wolf wanted physical specimens for his teams. One former scout said he had an unbreakable rule that cornerbacks had to be over five-foot, 10-inches. If you measured five-feet, 9 and seven-eighths inches, Wolf wasn't interested.

In Oakland, Wolf was enamored with huge offensive lineman. The Raiders, in the 1970's, typically had the heaviest lines in the league. Wolf also liked strong-armed quarterbacks and fast receivers. In Green Bay, he modified his stance with the hiring of Walsh protege Mike Holmgren.

Nevertheless, Wolf wanted specimens at nearly every position. Big players don't get hurt as often as the undersized variety, and speed wins in the NFL, so Wolf was willing to look at measurables as much as production.

The late Tony Razzano, the 49ers long-time director of college scouting greatly favored college production over measurables.

The Wolf philosophy is definitely reflected in the 49ers' recent picks - consider tight end Vernon Davis (who ran a 4.38 40 at the combine but never caught more than 48 passes in one season at Maryland). Wide receiver Jason Hill was the fastest prospect at his combine and Joe Staley was the fastest offensive lineman at his.

Both Wolf and Walsh were outrageously successful at their crafts. But philosophies work as long as the people making decisions turn prospects into Pro Bowlers.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ninerinsider/detail?blogid=45&entry_id=38095#readmore

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One should always remember that it is the implementers that make their strategic assessment process works.

Best Practices of Desktop Strategists (3)

Another set of best practices from Miyamoto Musashi, the sword saint of Japan. He is definitely not a Desktop Strategist.

1. Do not think dishonestly.
2. The Way is in training.
3. Become acquainted with every art.
4. Know the Ways of all professions.
5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.
6. Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything.
7. Perceive those things which cannot be seen.
8. Pay attention even to trifles.
9. Do nothing which is of no use.

It is important to start by setting these broad principles in your heart, and train in the Way of Strategy. If you do not look at things on a large scale it will be difficult for you to master strategy. If you learn and attain this strategy you will never lose even to twenty or thirty enemies. More than anything to start with you must set your heart on strategy and earnestly stick to the Way. You will come to be able to actually beat men in fights, and to be able to win with your eye. Also by training you will be able to freely control your own body, conquer men with your body, and with sufficient training you will be able to beat ten men with your spirit. When you have reached this point, will it not mean that you are invincible?

source: http://ninjamarket.com/a-book-of-five-rings

Best Practices of Desktop Strategists (2)

My associates and I have compiled a list of best practices from prominent strategic implementers. In most cases, we utilize all of the mentioned practices in our own way.


Following are other best practices from world class desktop strategists:


Napoleon the great French military leader was fond of writing on cards and organizing them. From a pragmatic view, it is easily to organize (and reorganize) information on index cards.




Napoleon was also famous for waking up before the sun rise.


More to come

Using Statistics to Assess the Grand Situation

Secure data on your opposition.

Assess the data.

Discover the habits and tendencies of yourself, the other competitors and the grand settings.

Understand the strengths, the weaknesses, the opportunities and the threats of each competitor is not enough.

With the "strategic assessment" module of our Compass AE process, you will understand the opposition's strategic position from the different views of the grand settings.

The more you learn about yourself, your competitors and your grand settings from the different views, the better your chance of understanding yourself, your opponent and the grand settings.

With our Compass AE process are your guide, you will find the critical path of least resistance.

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November 23, 2008

Titans' Against-the-Grain Defense

By JUDY BATTISTA NASHVILLE

It was not long after Jim Schwartz began an unpaid internship with the old Cleveland Browns, driving scouts and players to the airport, and buying cigarettes for the coaches, that he bumped up against football's poured-in-concrete conventional wisdom.

Schwartz, now the defensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans, had an economics degree from Georgetown University, an abiding fascination with statistics and a preference for watching game film over television. That made him a kindred spirit with his first N.F.L. boss, Bill Belichick. But when Schwartz told Belichick his findings from an early N.F.L. research project almost 15 years ago, Belichick said he did not believe him.

"Fumbles are a random occurrence," Schwartz said he told Belichick. "Being able to get interceptions or not throw interceptions has a high correlation with good teams. But over the course of a year, good teams don't fumble any more or less than bad teams. Bill didn't agree. He said, 'No, good teams don't fumble the ball.' But actually, they fumble just as often as bad teams."

With the Titans, Schwartz once encouraged the former offensive coordinator Norm Chow to run more on third-and-short because his research indicated that it was more effective than passing. Unorthodox thinking like that has earned Schwartz, 42, a reputation as one of the N.F.L.'s leading practitioners of statistical analysis "Moneyball" for the shoulder-pad set using them in coaching the defense for the league's only unbeaten team.

In Schwartz's eighth season as the coordinator, the Titans' defense is ranked sixth entering Sunday's game here against the Jets (7-3). The ranking is based on yards surrendered. "Who cares who is leading in yardage?" Schwartz said, pointing out that allowing a 12-yard run raises the total but is meaningless on a third-and-20 play. No statistic matters more to coaches than fewest points allowed, and by that measure, no team comes close to the Titans (10-0). They are giving up 13.1 points a game, 1.4 points fewer than the second-ranked Pittsburgh Steelers. But Schwartz, perhaps more aware than most of how numbers can be manipulated, did not embrace that figure without explanation.

The Titans gave up their most points of the season, 21, to Indianapolis. But the Colts scored 7 points with little time remaining, when the Titans were leading by 17. Against Kansas City, the Titans allowed 10 late points after the starters were pulled in a 34-10 victory. So the Titans average fewer than 13.1 meaningful points allowed. With an offense that relies on the run, not downfield passing, the Titans are built to win close (read playoff) games. That leaves the defense with little margin for error. The Titans are defined by multitalented players who are effective in different styles. The Titans used eight-man fronts to stop Jacksonville's running game in the season opener, then played a cover-2 defense to thwart Cincinnati's passing the next week.

With a line featuring Albert Haynesworth, perhaps the league's best defensive player, the Titans generate pressure on quarterbacks with minimal blitzing. (An addendum to Schwartz's fumble analysis: good teams sack the quarterback, and forcing a quarterback to fumble is a lot easier than taking the ball from a running back or a wide receiver.) Players credit the defensive coaches for their ability to correct mistakes quickly the Chicago Bears converted three consecutive third-down attempts on their opening drive against the Titans, but none the rest of the game and for the detailed preparation that dovetails with what linebacker Keith Bulluck called Schwartz's "little hobbies." Kyle Vanden Bosch said: "Especially from a defensive lineman standpoint, we don't usually pay attention to formations and down and distance. He has that broken down for us. We know what to expect out of certain formations, and what plays they can run. It's unusual for a defensive line. But we have a quiz in front of the whole defense on Friday, and he expects everybody to know that." Belichick regards Schwartz as one of the smartest coaches he has been around, and in recent years, Schwartz has become a candidate for several head coaching jobs. He is almost certain to be a front-runner as positions open this year. But being known as a "stats guy" is not necessarily a compliment, because statistics do not hold the romantic place in football that they do in baseball.

Although every coach uses plenty of data the Titans' Jeff Fisher tracks how long his team takes to break the huddle football is unlikely to bestow statistics-driven celebrity on anyone the way the baseball book "Moneyball" did on Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics.

Schwartz has met with the developers of a computer program to analyze difficult play-calling decisions, and he has watched film with Aaron Schatz, an author of "Pro Football Prospectus," who uses unusual statistics to analyze the game. But at the same time, Schwartz shuns the impression that creates, stressing that statistics are just another tool in game preparation.

"Sometimes, that's an easy thing for people in the media to use against you," Schwartz said. " 'Oh, yeah, he can't adjust; he's just a stats guy. They don't really understand the game.' That's why sometimes, the whole stats thing is a dirty word.

"If you ask me, Would you rather have a great fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants guy on Sunday, a guy who can dial up plays and he'd be the best in league, or a guy who is best in the league from Monday to Saturday preparing, I respect the guy who prepares. You're not always going to be rolling 7, 7, 7 and be hot every week. But if you prepare well during the week, you'll be consistent from week to week."

Numbers have long threaded through Schwartz's thinking. His father was a police officer, and when they watch television together and see a news report about a murder, his father will mention what percentage of women are murdered by their husbands. When Schwartz was growing up in Baltimore, the Dallas Cowboys were the best team in football. They used a computer analysis of prospects as part of their forward-thinking draft preparation.

"They used that not to press a button and have the computer say, 'This is your draft pick,' " Schwartz said. "It was more to guide them — these are important traits to look for. That's the way we use it."

The 16-game season provides a small sample, a shortcoming of football statistics. So Schwartz breaks down each drive as if it were its own game. Twelve drives, say, multiplied by 16 games is a much bigger sample.

/// Micro-assessing the grand situation.

Yet Schwartz rejects one Beane quirk revealed in "Moneyball" — that he does not like to watch games because he cannot stand how random events may influence the outcome. Schwartz, a former college linebacker, calls the defensive signals from the sideline rather than the press box, so he can look at his players and gauge their physical feedback. The Titans' attacking style — what Vanden Bosch called "forcing the issue" — seems to run counter to the by-the-numbers image that makes Schwartz uncomfortable.

"This guy is a football coach who motivates players," Schatz said, "and he also happens to have a very open mind and interest in statistics. But he's not like me on the sidelines."

Still, with Tennessee on the way to the playoffs, the Titans' pounding defense — and the mind that directs it — figure to get plenty of attention. Schwartz cringes when he thinks others perceive him as a numbers geek, an odd concern for an avid amateur chess player who uses Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov analogies.

"People talk about the chess match between coaches and coordinators," Schwartz said. "Anybody who plays chess knows your rook never falls down, your rook never stops one spot short. There's human nature to football that will never make it into a game of numbers."

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/sports/football/23titans.html?

Best Practices of Desktop Strategists

What are the Best Practices for most Desktop Strategists?

• Use a standing table for planning and strategy development;

• Read Sun Tzu's AoW and other Chinese strategy classics before game preparation or game time;

• Use mind maps to secure an eagle-eye view;

• Listen to Mozart and Bach Music while working
  

• Understand the basics of project management. (There are some so-called strategists who do not know how to define milestones and organize project activities.)
  

• Always focus on getting an eagle-eye view.