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Soapbox Philosophy: Will a talent like Williams rise here?
Op-Ed · August 22, 2014
Last week, at the school’s coaches meeting, I got up to do my annual spiel to the coaches, telling (or reminding) them about our news cycle, deadlines, different ways to turn in scores or contact us, etc.
I’ve done this several times in the past and always take along what I call the “Letter to Coaches” to hand out to anyone who wants them, especially new coaches. On the top letter, I will mark some things that are most important to mention in my two-minute talk.
Even though I don’t have much to cover, most of the information is the same and most of the coaches are familiar to me, I still feel nervous and stumble through the words.
Robin Williams’s death came as a shock to me. He was such an amazing talent, from standup comedy to his dramatic roles on the big screen.
Yet he was most known for his ability to improvise. That’s why I mentioned my standing in front of the coaches meeting. Even with preparation and repetition, I can’t do as well as Williams did off-the-cuff.
I watched Mork & Mindy as a kid and assumed that most of his riffs came from the script. But after news came of his death, I read about how Williams often went off-script to interject his own reactions to Pam Dawber’s lines, or other actors’ lines, and how often his improv ended up trumping the jokes professional writers spent who-knows-how-long wrangling into dialogue. I also read that oftentimes, the writers would simply put in “Mork improvises here” and just let Williams go.
I often wonder about directors — like employers — who stick to the script and do everything by the book. Coaches, too. Sometimes this is the best way, sometimes it puts process over people and just makes things worse.
In Williams’ case, we see writers and directors who saw his immense talent, gave him some general parameters and then simply tried to stay out of his way. When Williams looks good, they look good.
That’s a great way to do business, to run a school, or to run a team. The employer or coach still needs to call the plays, set the goals and deadlines, and make sure everyone performs as a team.
Yet smart employers and coaches are the ones who can identify the training, gifts and talent in their people and build plans around them — not giving greater weight to policies and procedures unless someone’s behavior hurts the reputation, the progress or the goals.
We know this worked for Williams and many of the TV and movie studios who hired him. Look at movies like Aladdin, Good Will Hunting, Night At the Museum, Dead Poets’ Society, and on and on. A check of his Internet Movie Database page shows Williams acted in 104 movies and TV shows, with three of those movies still not released.
Williams was one of a kind, and not many people will achieve his level of fame.
That takes me back to that coaches meeting. For such a small school, we have been blessed by several coaches — and lets not forget teachers and fine arts instructors — who have great talent and skills and choose to stay right here in West Branch.
And those folks may very will find that they are helping to train another great leader, or actor, or athlete, or musician, or mathematician who will rise up to great heights of fame when they are able to let their genius and skills run wild for the greater good.
Who knows? Maybe you’ll see their names in the paper this very year. Maybe you already have.
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