As a former college basketball player, I always find the college conference tournaments basketball NCAA Basketball Tournament to be one of the most exciting, thrilling, and enjoyable viewing experiences every year. Commonly referred to as March Madness, these events grabs the attention of some 37 million people through NCAA Basketball Tournament office and on-line pool participation. In addition, it costs businesses an estimated $1.7 billion in productivity according to the Chicago-based placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
By learning and acting on some key lessons from the annual NCAA Tournament experience and the contests themselves, businesses and individuals can create their own March Madness experiences around their own high priorities all year long. Here are six ways to get you started:
Establish an energizing theme. The NCAA Tournament is referred to as March Madness. It generates excitement and interest and grabs people's attention. What theme could you introduce to generate excitement and interest while grabbing people's best attention?
Find ways to involve everyone in the theme. Roughly 37 million people participate in March Madness by filling out their brackets for the office and on-line pools. Then, they keep an eye on what is happening in the contests. You themes should broadly reach your target audience. Themes are not just for your most creative ideas - the more popular the theme, the better!
Create short, intense, and focused campaigns and themes. The NCAA Tournament runs 19 days. This is roughly 15% to 20% of the entire NCAA Basketball Season. Look for ways to run a few effective monthly or quarterly campaigns or themes during the year.
Find ways to get people to passionately play with their strengths. The key to the phenomenon known as March Madness is passionate participation. The challenge for organizations is to take themes from passionate passive participation in watching the outcomes to passionate active engagement in creating real results. When you create opportunities for people to engage their strengths, you can take engagement to a new level.
Know the breakthrough goal. Each team enters the tournament with their sights on some significant breakthrough. The top 10 teams might be thinking National Championship, the next 25 might be thinking Final Four or Elite Eight, and others might feel the Sweet Sixteen is a breakthrough goal. What is the breakthrough goal for your team or organization?
Focus on the wins to achieve your breakthrough. It takes six wins to claim a National Championship. You can not get all six wins at once. Thus, you must focus on the game at hand. Preparation, strategy, execution, and adjustments are necessary to achieve each win. The same applies to you and your organization. Use the breakthrough goal to drive winning performances along the way.
The above basketball attract millions of fans each year to watch the excitement of the college conference tournaments and the NCAA Basketball Tournament. It is these elements that keep people engaged to watch a game (Syracuse and Connecticut in the 2009 Big East Championship) go 6 overtimes and end at 1:22am, myself included. Can you use these elements to create the same kind of commitment to your highest priorities?
Copyright 2009 Jon L. Iveson, Ph.D.
About the Author:
Jon L. Iveson, Ph.D., The Champion's Coach, is a Gazelles Certified Coach who helps individuals and companies produce champion results and build champion relationships. Access Jon's FREE 21-page e-Book on "The 8 Steps to Thriving during Tough Times" and other valuable resources at http://www.ThrivingduringToughTimesToday.com
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