Having an experienced team is one of the goals of every leader. Leaders have spent years investing in their people and now they have reached what they feel is the top of the mountain—a group of experienced people around them.
Experienced teams feel “they have seen it all” and “done it all.” There is institutional knowledge. They can anticipate any question and easily provide solutions to whatever they may face on a day-to-day basis.
And this is when “experience” can potentially be dangerous for a team.
Experienced teams, if they are not careful, can become assumptive. The world is changing so rapidly that yesterday’s solutions do not solve today’s problems. Experienced teams can also get lazy. “I’ve seen this before, it always works itself out” becomes a default mindset. New ideas are easily dismissed as are the talented people who presented them. “I know what I’m doing” is the prevailing thought. Experienced teams can become too comfortable. Things start falling between the cracks.
Experienced teams have unknowingly reached a crossroads. If they are prideful and assumptive, the organization has probably already plateaued and will soon be in decline. This type of experienced team is moving in a downward trajectory from experienced to extinct. But if experienced teams are self-aware and humble, then they will prioritize personal growth and move upwardly from experience to excellence.
This brings me to Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine. LaVine is a nine-year veteran who heading into this season had averaged over 23.7 points per game the previous four seasons. He is a two-time All-Star and was selected to the 2020 United States Olympic team. He is experienced and successful. If anyone had the right to rest on his laurels and say, “I’m know what I’m doing, I’ve done this many times before,” it would be Zach LaVine.
But as this season began, LaVine noticed a decline in his ability to make shots close to the basket. Coming off an arthroscopic surgery on his knee, LaVine was humble enough to admit he needed to change to remain effective.
As told in this allchgo.com article, LaVine developed a new move called The Pinoy Step. LaVine said, “It started in the beginning of the year, when I didn’t have my athleticism, I had to find a way to finish around the rim against big guys.”
He added,
I just started thinking of stuff, trying to figure out missed timing. Kyrie (Irving) does a lot of things like that with the ball. A couple of my trainers, Drew Hanlen was helping me out with ball fakes and pump fakes in the paint. Jordan Lawley, one of the other guys I work with was helping me with ball fakes and euro steps. I kinda added all three of those things together and made a move.
