So many stories have emerged from the Kansas City Royals World Series Championship.  The most compelling story for me is the one of relationships:  the kind and quality that exists between the Royals players and coaches, and the love affair the city has with their team. 
 
Winners are successful at the endeavors they seek and do not have to be a part of any kind of sporting team or event to gain that title.  So while sports may not be your thing, being successful is something most of us aspire to be.  How do we teach our kids to be winners in life?  What lessons can we learn from the Royals successful journey to the top of their sport?  While there are many lessons, let’s focus on three.
 
1. Relationships Matter:  Who doesn’t love a winner?  Yet no one is born a winner, winners are made.  Winners climb and claw their way to the top.  Most revel in the moment but are quick to point out all those who helped get them to this point.  That’s why Oscar winners have a long list of people to thank, and the Royals players were quick to note teammates, coaches, family, friends, fans, and even angels that have inspired them along the way.  Many have also demonstrated their faith in God, or other higher being, by pointing to the sky, crossing themselves, or verbally giving thanks for the blessings they have received.  No one believes they got there on their own.  And what it boils down to is that finding success does not mean having the most or best talent, but comes from the belief in oneself, support and encouragement from others, the willingness to step up, and the heart to never quit.  The bottom line is, “Who got you there, baby?”   Relationships matter.
 
2. Having a plan and sticking to it, albeit with adjustments along the way, is an important step in the success process.  Dayton Moore, Kansas City’s General Manager did just that.  You can read all about it in his book (More Than a Season:  Building a Championship Culture) or understand the value he places on relationships by this quote from Jeff Passon’s article in Yahoo News, “The Epic Story of the 2015 Royals and their World Series Championship:”
 
And while Moore embraced statistics, he never forsook the maxims of scouting, one of which was to focus on people, trust them and bask in their success.  “You believe in ’em,” Moore said. “You knew they were going to battle, to put ourselves in a position to win. And they did it.”
 
Even one of Moore’s purposes for writing the book was to recognize the relationships that got both him and the Royals to this championship level as noted in Andy McCullough’s, The K Zone blog,  “It allows us to give credit to a lot of the people who did much of the heavy lifting.”
 
Yes the plan to build a championship culture began with the foundation of focusing on the people.  He not only looked at their skills, but their character and willingness to play hard.  It reminds me of another great coach, Bill Snyder, who built a desolate K-State Football program by creating a culture of hard work, attention to detail, and a focus on success by recruiting men of character, and bringing them all together as family.
 
3.  Never Give Up:  Things happen that get in our way, make us feel bad, or cause us to alter our course.  The bottom line is, developing the capacity to push forward in the face of adversity or frustration begins with one’s attitude.  It doesn’t mean you don’t acknowledge the obstacle or lack of expertise, it means you look for a way around it or through it.  You learn from mistakes – both your own and those that others make – and make adjustments.  The decisions we make and the actions we take determine our course and ultimately our destiny.  We don’t have to be perfect.  We do have to “Keep the Line Moving” as the Royals would say.
 
It also takes a belief that we will find a way to succeed.  Sometimes keeping that faith or belief is hard, but ultimately gets us to our goal.  One of my favorite quotes speaks to the idea that many often give up just before they would have found success.  Dale Carnegie was quoted as saying, “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”  I must admit I could actually be a member of “quoteaholics” because I love them!  They grace my office in books and frames and motivate me because they make me think about my own attitude and subsequent actions.  Just ask my former players and students.  There hardly was a day that went by that they didn’t see a quote on the board in the classroom or the locker room.  Quotes aren’t actions but they spur me to action.  The message here is:  Find a way to succeed.
 
Bonus Lesson (Kids and adults need to realize this too):  Sometimes it’s lonely at the top and once you get there, the pressure is on to stay there.  How do we teach kids to keep on setting new goals and fending off those who would minimize their accomplishments?  I’ve seen it happen all too often in school.  Maybe it starts with what we see in the media.  Read on.
 
Unfortunately as teams or individuals ascend to the top they often fall prey to those who would seek to tear them down for whatever reason.  Jealousy, disappointment, second-guessing, the blame game… they all rear their ugly heads when we find success and more often if we fall short of reaching our goals.  The Mets were the best team in the National League and played in the World Series, but instead of this accomplishment being celebrated throughout New York City in all venues (especially because they weren’t expected to be there), the headline in the New York Post focused on their bitter disappointment by putting them down:  “Amazing Disgrace.”  They did not disgrace themselves despite a couple of untimely errors and emotionally based decisions; they simply didn’t achieve the goal they had set out to. While some newspapers acknowledged that, those few papers whose headlines chose to rub salt into the wound didn’t do anything to help a deeply disappointed Mets team (or their fans) rebound for future success.  Kansas City fans reveled in the 2014 World Series appearance, wondered aloud about the conservative decision to leave a runner on 3rd base to end the game, but rallied behind their team showing them the love and encouraging them to get back up and give it another run.  So often things said in haste or that are negative in nature may not reflect the majority viewpoints, but seem to be the things we remember most because of the pain they cause.  How we respond to disappointment of ourselves and others impacts how we perform in the future.  Mistakes happen.  Goals are not met.  Every. Day.  Relationships matter through both good times and bad; through thick and thin and yes even “til death do us part.”
 
In the meantime, it's time for the parade. I will be #ForeverRoyal and celebrate this 2015 World Series Championship for many years to come because I love my Royals (and of course my Wildcats) as well as my many family and friends who support me through all the many endeavors I undertake.  Where would I be without you?
 
 
 
 

Last night, I sat in my living room alternating from anxiety to quiet cheering (my husband had gone to bed!) over the many highs and lows of the wild and wholly Kansas City Royals and Oakland A's play off game.  This morning, I look back on that crazy game and the season that the Royals have had and think about the many teachable moments that classrooms everywhere could be having today whether you're a fan or not (and how could you not be?).

The first lesson is Never Give Up.  Persevere.  Find a way.  All season long, the Royals have been streaky, finding ways to climb atop the Central Division of the American League, only to slide and have to regain their momentum.   In games, they found ways to claw back and beat teams that thought they had a win sewed up.   Never giving up requires a belief in yourself and a willingness to continue to look for answers after recognizing that what you were doing wasn't working.  It also means moving past mistakes, whether they be player throwing errors or managerial strategic errors.  Tuesday night's game was no exception.  A base running blunder shut down an early rally.  Swinging at pitches far out of the strike zone on a regular basis demonstrated their own anxiety as they tried to make the comeback happen with every pitch.  And then there was that first pitching change that had us all scratching our heads.  How many times have we given up as students, or in relationships, or at work because we let the obstacles overshadow the fact we had the ability to dig down a little deeper and still achieve the goal?  How many times have we made an adjustment that just didn't work, so we stopped trying to find more solutions and instead just said, "Oh well," and let it go?  Not the Royals.

The second lesson is Utilize Your Strengths.  All season long (and last night during the national broadcast) we heard about how the Royals aren't home run hitters... in fact the worst team in Major League Baseball.  Yet we found a way to win 89 regular season games, so there had to be some sort of talent there.  They call it the small ball game.  Dinking and doinking hits (as Rex Huddler the Royals TV commentator would say) and running wild on the base paths.  We don't seem to possess natural power but we can run, and run we did all season long (leading the Majors in stolen bases).  Last night alone the Royals had 7 stolen bases and 5 in the nail-biting last few innings!  The A's designated hitter hit 2 home runs last night, accounting for 5 runs.  And they lost.  So power isn't always the answer.  The key is to take advantage of your strengths to minimize your weaknesses.  If a student isn't a great test taker, then be the best writer, analyst, or discussion leader possible.  Learn the material in ways that you understand it thoroughly and can apply it.  Then every now and then you'll hit that test out of the ball park, but in between times, you are still winning games in different ways.

The third lesson is teamwork.  We accomplish a lot more when we work with others rather than trying to do everything ourselves.  No one has all the answers all of the time.  While last night's game ended with one player getting the winning hit, it was the team and their loyal, maniacal fans that kept the possibilities of a win alive all night long even when the scoreboard showed it might be an early exit to the first post season appearance in 29 years.  You could see the players encouraging each other and planning strategy.  The fans were on their feet, doing their part cheering wildly and chanting, "Let's go Roy-als!" over and over.  They rallied together and won together, and had they lost, they would have lost together too.  They own their mistakes and give credit to others when they succeed.  They feed off each other and the energy generated by the roaring crowd.  Relationships matter on and off the field, in and out of the classroom, and in the work place.  You have each other's back.  You try out new ideas and help find ways to succeed together.  You celebrate successes and  encourage and comfort when things aren't going well.  It's easy to support a consistent winner.  It's the sign of a true commitment to show unconditional love and support through the droughts and disappointments of "close but no cigars."  And in the end that belief, camaraderie, and support gives us the tools and the motivation to persevere and emerge as winners. 

Post Game Thoughts.  In the world of education and politics we can learn a lot from the Royals win last night, and the journey that got them this far.  There have been disagreements over strategies and performances, and calls from fans for the ouster of the manager or for players to be traded, but in the end, the boys in blue band together everyday and play the game.  Success doesn't happen overnight.  The last 2 years they have utilized their strengths and put together winning seasons after the owner was finally willing to put some money into obtaining and retaining the talent that is needed to make the goal of winning easier to accomplish.  With our political fights polarizing our populace and making it difficult for schools to do what they need to do to effectively provide the best education possible for our students, teachers go to work every day and play the game.  They utilize their dwindling resources to the best of their ability, working for a win each and every day.  But we recognize that this is a team effort and one that comes with the need to obtain and retain the best educators and provide them with the necessary tools and resources.  Most of all, educators need all of our SUPPORT to cheer them on, work with them and not against them.  When we support education the way we support our favorite teams, the final score will show a win for our kids and that's what really matters.  Be Royal!