doug wick

I’m not a huge fan of the University of Southern California, mostly for the sole reason that I personally flew to Miami to watch them pummel my Oklahoma Sooners 55-19 in the 2005 Orange Bowl game. But you can’t deny their success as a football program under coach Pete Carroll, who has led their program since 2000.

One of the things I’ve always found interesting about Carroll is that nearly all of his team’s practices are open to the public. Most college coaches guard practices closely, not only because they find that an audience distracts the players – but also because they don’t want competitors sending scouts to study their team.

Carroll finds that an audience helps players get accustomed to the distractions of a real game-time scenario, makes them practice harder, and is fairly dismissive of the potential danger that competitive spies pose. While many attribute this to arrogance (notably those who have watched his team pummel theirs, of which I am certainly not the only one), I believe that Carroll understands the role of execution vs. methodology.

Sure, Carroll isn’t handing anyone his playbook, and he doesn’t allow photography or video at practices, but he is ok with more openness than most because he understands that just because he is revealing how he does it doesn’t mean you can go do the same. You won’t have his experience, you won’t have his athletes, and even if you did you would be starting late. You may learn a lot about his methods, but you won’t be able to outdo him at his own game.

This is a good lesson in business as well. Someone stealing your ideas or you way of doing things is often far less of a threat than you think it is. Because ultimately it’s not about the ideas, it’s about the doing. And ultimately no one can really execute your idea the way you see it better than you.

Being guarded with your ideas can be dangerous, because the more you convince yourself of their value, the less focused you will be on executing on them. You will not benefit from the discussion that sharing ideas brings, and your ideas will not evolve.

Try holding a few open practices, and see what it brings.