Organization Leaders- President and Board

Sponsoring organizations are the big winners and are those who have the most to gain from the PCT. This is because happy Parents and Coaches generate happiness in the Kids, who can now enjoy the game without attempting to navigate the tricky dual roles of Child and Player.

When the Players know that the Parents and Coaches speak with one voice, the result is a dramatic uptick in satisfaction, relaxation-- and learning. Performance naturally follows.

The PCT Process for Youth Sports: Inspired by Scrum

The PCT Process is inspired by a proven best practice in project management. The best practice is called Scrum. Scrum was developed by Dr. Jeff Sutherland.

Jeff is a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Military Academy, a Top Gun of his USAF RF-4C Aircraft Commander class and flew 100 missions over North Vietnam. Jeff has advanced degrees from Stanford University and Ph.D from University of Colorado School of Medicine.

His Scrum process is considered a de-facto best practice for project management worldwide, and is used by some of the most successful organizations in the world, including Google, Microsoft, Nokia, and thousands of others.

Scrum, in turn, is inspired and informed by recent strong advances in Complexity Science. Scrum is effective in part because of its very robust and scientific theoretical basis.

If you choose to pilot the PCT Process, you are in very good company.

When you execute on the PCT process, you can expect the following:

Retention of Excellent Coaches

Your organization develops internal cohesion as Coaches experience a new level of satisfaction with the Coaching task. With the PCT framework, Coaches can successfully engage Parents while retaining all the authority conferred to them to run the team. Instead of avoiding Parents, Coaches can now engage them-- on terms the Coach sets and enforces. The PCT provides the Coach with a friction-free way to engage, manage (and even coach) Parents. The PCT also provides the Coach with a new source of information and insight-- about what is really going on with his or her team.

Increased Retention of Commited, Active Parents

Parents fund everything. They are essential. Parents are in authority over all the Kids in your program. Parents delegate some authority the Organization and Coaching staff. Since all people rarely agree all the time, it is virtually assured that Parents have occasional issues with Coaching decisions. If Coaches do not engage in feedback loops with the Parent group, it is just a matter of time before problems develop. The problem is not Parents, the problem is Parents who are not heard.

The PCT addresses the Parent problem head-on by providing a recurring, Parent-optional meeting where Parents interact with Coaches at the group level under a simple set of ground rules. This kind of direct and intention engagement with Parents has lasting effects. Parents who feel they are heard tend to engage, and those who engage tend to stay and support your organization no matter what. These Parents also talk to others not currently in your Organization and become your word-of-mouth salespeople in the community you serve.

Healthy Growth That Scales

Growing a youth sports organization is a daunting task. A more daunting task is managing that same organization. That same PCT process can scale to any number of teams. This means the PCT can help you not just grow the Organization, but also manage it.

The PCT is a management and leadership tool not just for Coaches but for the entire leadership of the larger Organization. The PCT provides an easy-to-understand framework for communication between Parents, Coaches, Players and the Organization. It also provides Organization leaders with a management tool that provides recurring loops of valuable, actionable feedback.

Word of Mouth Advertising

People who have a hearing tend to support you even when you do not make decisions that support every single thing they want. Your engaged Parents talk to other families not currently in your Organization. These Parents become enthusiastic, word-of-mouth salespeople in the community you serve.

Self-selection of healthy families into your program

Parents with clear intentions that are aligned with the stated goals of your program are attracted to the PCT process and leaders that implement it. These parents who are aligned with your clearly stated goals for the Kids become the backbone of your organization-- and the base from which your program can grow.

Parents who are unwilling or unable to work with other parents and the coaching staff may not enjoy the PCT process. These parents may find themselves experiencing discomfort in an organization that uses the PCT.

Better Results as Measured by Your Goals and Objectives

Measureable data points include the level of satisfaction of Coaches, Parents, and Players before and after PCT implementation. Regardless of wins and losses on the playing field, these measures are key. If all the groups are more satisfied after experiencing the PCT process, then all the groups in your program are more engaged, more loyal and more adaptive then they were previously. The result is a program that is learning, highly adaptive, and strong.

A Culture of Excellence in Your Organization

Everyone wants to be good at what they do, and everyone wants to be affiliated with a winner. But whenever people group together around a task, things get complex very quickly. The PCT cuts through the complexity by defining very clear boundaries, roles and tasks for the recurring PCT meeting process. The PCT establishes adaptive loops of feedback that Coaches, Players, Parents and the Organization can tap for learning and insight.

An Ability to Outplay athletically "stronger" teams at every level

When a PCT-oriented youth sports program encounters an athletically "better" team that does not use the PCT process, the competitive results can be interesting. The team that uses PCT is actually much, much larger and much more well-organized than the non-PCT team.

This means your opponents are not just playing against your Players. They are also competing against your PCT-supporting Parents, Coaches and the larger Organization. The Players are in a single role when they play the game-- the role of Player. When the Players take the field or skate on the ice, they know the situation. They know the Organization, Coaches and Parents are in agreement on team objectives and how to mutually achieve them. The kids know the Coaches and Parents speak with one voice.

With no split loyalties or difficult "authority navigation" tasks, the Players can go out and JUST PLAY. This is a huge advantage that can help your teams beat "better" teams who bring all kinds of baggage to the game. The PCT gets Players, Coaches and Parents in sync. When this happens, your Players are free to JUST PLAY THE GAME. The results can be amazing.

Loops of Feedback that Generate Data ....for Org-level Learning and Adaptation

Your Organization may choose to schedule every PCT meeting for every team during the same week of the month. For example, for all your teams, you instruct your Coaches to conduct the PCT meeting on the 2nd and 4th weeks of each and every month during the season.

From there, during the 1st and 3rd weeks of the month, your Organization can gather PCT data from Coaches, Parents and Players, inspect it, learn from it, and adapt to it.

Your Organization may choose to take the process a step further by running a meetings in PCT format during weeks 1 and 3 with all of your Coaching staff.

How broadly you choose to roll out the PCT Process is up to you. You can roll it out for 1 team, a few teams, or every team in your Organization.

How you utilize the feedback generated by the PCT Process at the team level is up to you.

Regardless of how you choose to implement the PCT Process, your Organization can become more sensitive to change, learn faster and more quickly adapt. In the end, this culture of learning and adaptation permeates your groups of Coaches, Parents, and Players. Everyone "gets it" as a shared understanding between Coaches and Parents develops.

The result is a closer alignment of all the groups (Coaches, Parents, Players, Org leaders) with the stated goals of the Organization.

Are you using the PCT Process in your Youth Sports organization? Please contact me and tell me more-- I am keenly interested in receiving a report of your experience with the PCT Process.