August 1, 2023
by Stephen T. Messenger
I recently had the privilege of talking to about 50 soldiers who were the graders for the Expert Soldier Badge. This Army competition is where Soldiers are tested on basic skills, such as weapons assembly and disassembly, medical field care, calling for artillery fire, and a 12-mile road march. If the soldier completes all tasks to standard, they earn the coveted Expert Soldier Badge and wear it the rest of their career. This is a big deal.
These graders enforce the standard. They decide whether the testing soldier passes or fails.
Before talking to this group, I remembered a story told by Baseball College Hall of Fame coach John Scolinos in 1996 at the 52nd annual American Baseball Coaches Association convention. In front of over 4,000 coaches, he walked out on stage with a home plate tied around his neck.
Coach Scolinos Speech at the Conference
After some opening remarks, Coach asked: “Do we have any Little League coaches out there?” Several hands went up. “Do any of you know how wide home plate is in Little League?” One quiet voice answered, “Seventeen inches?” “That’s right,” the old coach said.
“Now, are there any high school baseball coaches in the room today?” Over a hundred hands shot up. “How wide is home plate in high school?” “Seventeen inches,” someone said. “You’re right!” the coach replied.
“How about college baseball coaches?” Half the room raised their hands. “Well how wide is home plate in college baseball?” “Seventeen inches!” everyone yelled out in unison.
“Back in Babe Ruth’s day, how wide was home plate?” Silence hit the room, then someone sheepishly yelled out: “Seventeen inches?” “That’s right,” said the coach.
The coach changed his focus and asked, “What do you suppose a Major League team’s management would do if a big-league pitcher couldn’t throw a ball over a seventeen-inch plate?” He paused and the room fell silent. He filled the void with, “They send him down to the minors or fire him!
“But let me tell you what they would never ever do. They would never say, ‘Ah, that’s alright buddy, if you can’t throw a baseball over a seventeen-inch target we’ll make bigger for you – maybe we’ll widen it to nineteen or twenty inches so it will be easier for you; and if that’s not enough we’ll make it twenty-five inches wide.’”
Scolinos then asked the audience … “Here’s is a question for each of you. What would you do if your best player consistently showed up late for practice? Or if your team rules forbid facial hair and some of your players showed up on game days unshaven? What about if one of your players got caught drinking after hours the night before a game? Would you hold those players accountable, or would you widen home plate for them to fit their new standard?” The 4,000 coaches sat quiet as the old coach’s message began to mesmerize them.
Coach Scolinos then turned the plate on his chest towards himself and took out a black magic marker to draw something on it. When he finished he turned the plate around for the crowd to see. He had drawn a simple house complete with a front door and two windows.
He then said, “The problem with most homes in America today – and with many organizations – is people haven’t created and enforced standards. We no longer teach our children, players, employees, or our members accountability. It’s so much easier for parents, managers, and executive directors to just simply widen the plate!” The result is there are no consequences when people today fail to meet standards.
“Let’s face it; we’ve lowered standards in education. Has widening the plate helped our schools? We’ve changed the standards in some religions – has widening the plate helped our churches? We have lowered the standards across the government – has widening the plate made our governments better?”
Then he turned the home plate on his chest around to reveal the backside of it again and said “When we fail to hold ourselves, our children, our players or our employees accountable to any standards our future gets dark” – as the backside was completely black.
Don’t Widen the Plate
Coach Scolinos’ message could not be clearer. It’s so easy to call a ball a strike. It’s easier to watch a standard be missed than to correct it on the spot. It’s more comfortable to ignore a problem than to fix it.
We all need to personally uphold the standard and correct those that are not meeting it. Not in an angry, righteous manner but, as John Scolinos would do, by holding firm to the standard and prioritizing accountability.
While the message of upholding the standard was perfect for my group of military graders, the real message I wanted to convey as I told a modified version of the story was that it applies to every aspect of life. Walking by a problem, or even recording it on a cell phone, has been socially acceptable for years.
It’s time we all realign to the standard and hold ourselves and others responsible in a professional, coaching way.
Know the standard.
Espouse the standard.
Live the standard.
Enforce the standard.
Don’t Widen the Plate!
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