To borrow a line for that noted philosopher Forrest Gump, communication is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.
Of course, we do know what we get when we don’t communicate, it is usually brown, but is sure isn’t chocolate!
Now that we know our team’s performance will be greatly improved through communication, we have crossed a very important bridge. If something is going to lead to better performance and more wins then what would it be if we didn’t work on it with our team? Crazy? Dumb? Stupid? Foolish? All of the above? Yes!!
The next level of our communication pyramid is the college level. Once upon a time, it was accepted to go straight into the workforce from high school. College wasn’t a must to insure a good career or happy life. Now , while that is still true in rare instances, it seems that everyone needs a college degree to get ahead in the modern world.
Having said that then what do we remember from college? You remember college, right? I guess the answer to that question is tied to when you went to college. But for the most part, college is when we start to grow up. We are independent for the first time. No one is there to make sure we are awake and in class. No one checks up to see that we are doing our work and whether we fail or succeed lies very directly in our own hands.
College level communication on the softball field is at a much higher level. College level includes the primary play planning on every play. It also includes more advanced topics that include information gained on our opponents during the game, what they did in previous at-bats, how the pitcher pitched us and how their defense played in certain situations.
We also start to venture into the beginning stages of the next big piece of the communication puzzle. The secondary plays that arise when the unexpected happens, which can be every single play some days!! When your team begins to think about what to do when the brown stuff we talked about earlier hits the fan, then you have really progressed in your communication.
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