THE CHALLENGE:

How do we get the best out of every student, every athlete we work with?

THE IDEA:

Daniel Schneeman hit his first big league home run for the Guardians Sunday.  An incredible accomplishment and a special moment for anyone, to be sure, but let’s talk about how unlikely this moment seemed just a few years ago.  You see, Daniel was selected in the 33rd round of the 2018 draft, the 1,003 overall pick.  There isn’t even a 33rd round anymore, last year in the entire draft only 641 players were selected.  It’s hard to find data on exactly what the odds are a 33rd round pick makes it to the majors, this study from the year before Daniel was drafted says 9.9% of players selected in rounds 11-20 make the big leagues and doesn’t bother to go further, so it is safe to say at best he faced single-digit odds.  So how did Sunday’s home run happen?

Like all complex challenges, there’s no one simple reason for that.  Maybe the statistical models misjudged his talent and the scouts couldn’t see his drive.  Maybe he was a late bloomer, an unusually hard worker, or his body responded spectacularly to the diet and workout regimen of a professional athlete.  It’s probably a little of all of this. But having spent a lot of time around the Player Development staff at the Guardians these past 6 years, and having spent the 20 years before that working in education, I am certain the beliefs of his coaches played a significant role in his success.

If you spend time around this group you can see how this belief manifests in their behaviors.  I’ve seen them stay in the Spring Training coaches room until all hours of the evening talking about different ways to increase a player’s bat speed, change the shape of their slider, or improve the strength of their relationship with that player.  And not just the 1st rounders, but the 33rd rounders, the undrafted, and everyone in between.  I’ve seen the pride and joy on their face when “Schnee” was called up, and I’ve seen them agonize when it’s time to cut players to bring their roster down to league-mandated limits.  These coaches and leaders have built a culture in Player Development where a 33rd rounder has the same opportunity to thrive as anyone else.

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A friend recently sent me an article from a London paper highlighting the traits of the best teachers.  He asked what I thought of the list – I replied I thought it was good, but missing one critical piece; when we were hiring teachers at KIPP the number one thing I was looking for was whether that teacher believed that ALL students WILL learn if they are taught in a highly effective way. 

The reason we knew that teacher beliefs and expectations mattered was because of a study done in the late ‘60s, where researchers told elementary school teachers that some of their students were scientifically predicted to experience a spurt in their IQs in the coming year.  That was B.S. of course – in reality the students were randomly assigned into that “predicted spurt” group.  But at the end of year, sure enough, the students assigned to that group learned more.  The study proved what has come to be known as the Pygmalian Effect: that a teacher’s expectations and beliefs make a difference in the performance of their students.  

So why does this happen?  As the journalist Alix Spiegel explained in this article: As Rosenthal did more research, he found that expectations affect teachers’ moment-to-moment interactions with the children they teach in a thousand almost invisible ways. Teachers give the students that they expect to succeed more time to answer questions, more specific feedback, and more approval: They consistently touch, nod and smile at those kids more. “It’s not magic, it’s not mental telepathy,” Rosenthal says. “It’s very likely these thousands of different ways of treating people in small ways every day.”

Teachers and coaches hold an incredible amount of power over their students’ and athletes’ future success. If you are a coach or a teacher, I encourage you take a moment to think through the students and athletes you work with – what do you truly believe about each one?  And crucially, how does that show up in your decisions and in your actions? If you’re in a position to hire, supervise or support coaches and teachers, how do you ensure that everyone who works with your teachers and coaches truly believes that their students and athletes WILL succeed?  Because whether you believe they can get an A or not, or whether you believe they will make the big leagues someday or not, is a critical factor in whether they will.   

GO DEEP:

• To learn more about the Pygmalion Effect, click here, here, and here. 
• Ms. Spiegel’s article contains a sidebar: 7 Ways Teachers Can Change Their Expectations – containing specific strategies you can try if you think you need to change your attitude about a specific player that you coach, or student that you teach. 
• Ruth Whippman’s new book BoyMom highlights research that shows how the expectations schools place on boys – and yes, the beliefs of their teachers – are contributing to a widening gender gap in academic outcomes.
• Interested in harnessing the power of beliefs to benefit your team or school? Reach out to me anytime and let’s talk about whether I can help.