Early in my career I pretended to be an athletic coach. One of the events I attempted to coach was the high jump.
In the high jump (and the pole vault) there is what is called the “opening height.” That is the height at which the bar is initially set to start competition. Athletes must clear that opening height to remain in the competition. Those that don’t………………….put their warmups back on and head to the bus.
In organizational work, we also have opening heights. We call them “standards.”
A mistake that is made quite often is to think of the standards as THE GOAL. They are not! Achieving the standards is akin to clearing opening height — it is simply the starting point that keeps us in the competition.
EXCELLENCE is the goal. It is that ever-increasing height to which the bar is moved as we push ourselves, and each other, to betterness.
*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.
Nelson Coulter
Nelson Coulter has held a lot of titles: rancher, educator, author, musician, entrepreneur, coach, mentor, consultant, and professor. He has coached, taught, and been published in many settings. He has served in public schools of all shapes, sizes, and contexts. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Professional Practice at Louisiana State University - Shreveport. His most cherished titles, however, are the ones not attached to career identity: son, husband, dad, and granddad.
