Ep 708 | Six Hours to Win

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Most people believe that, that breakthroughs come from more effort, putting in more grind or more hours. And I think that that's the default explanation when something finally starts to work. But every once in a while, a story comes along that forces you to question that assumption. And, and in this particular case, it certainly forced me to question my own assumption— assumptions. Because this year, there's a great story in college football playing out with, with Indiana University. So a couple seasons ago, Indiana was largely an afterthought in, in college football. They weren't a terrible team, but they certainly were not great. They were definitely not part of the national conversation in terms of relevancy and, and team performance and ranking. Then this season occurs. And Indiana goes undefeated, number 1 team in the country, number 1 seed in the college football playoffs that are about to start. They win the Big Ten, and their quarterback wins the Heisman, which is the first Heisman Trophy won in program history. That alone is an insane turnaround, a remarkable turnaround. But what has recently, you know, caught my attention It was not their record. You know, I followed Indiana this year. It wasn't, you know, their players, though they're great. It was none of that. It was actually something that I was unaware of until just this past week that's been buried somewhat, and it's how this team goes about preparing. Now stick with me if you're not a football fan. I promise you this will start to make more sense. If you are a football fan, I'm going to guess you didn't know this about Indiana. There have been multiple reports, most recently in the Wall Street Journal, that Indiana only spends about 6 hours a week on the field practicing. Not, not 6 hours total, but 6 hours of on-field work. So in a sport where teams are allowed up to 20 hours a week on the field, and most every team is proud to take advantage of every one of those minutes or seconds. This team is only on the field for 6 hours a week. Now, when I first heard that, my natural reaction, especially having played football and, and, you know, for most, most of my early life and not having the experience of only 6 hours, we always went to the max. When I first read this, I was like, man, that's kind of irresponsible, or that's kind of soft, or that's a headline that's just written to get clicks. But then you start to look at the results this team got and the turnaround that it's had, and you realize it's, it's not about doing less. Something's got to be going on here. It's about doing something differently. Here's the important distinction, in my opinion. From what I gather, Indiana didn't cut effort, they just reallocated it. Their practices, their on-field practices, are short and they're intentional and they have minimal contact, meaning they're not tackling and doing stuff like that. There's basically no unnecessary physicality, there's no unnecessary punishment, which is a big thing in in sports, in football. Instead of, you know, bodies banging and all that stuff that they— that you tend to do and heads banging in football, instead this team emphasizes clarity. They emphasize or work on assignments. They work on communication. They focus on very specific game situations. They spend a disproportionate amount of time on film and film study. They, they spend a tremendous amount of time on mental reps, on understanding exactly what the opponent is trying to do and what decisions matter most when the game is on the line, when the game is tight. And when they go on the field, they aren't, they aren't getting their reps in. They're reinforcing the things that were already thought through or discussed in the, in the classroom. I think that's the difference. They are not practicing everything like 99% of teams have a tendency to do. They're practicing what matters in those 6 hours. They're focused on the high-leverage activities. In other words, they're focused on the things that matter most. Things like third downs, which I think even if you don't know football, you may know third downs is is when you're fighting to get a first down. You know, if you don't get that first down, then you're giving the ball back to the other team. So that's a high leverage sort of, or high value sort of scenario. The red zone, which is when you're nearing scoring a touchdown or kicking a field goal. Two-minute situations in the end of a half or end of a game. Moments where one mistake swings the entire game. That's where they're spending their time. That's where their preparation lives. Their coach, uh, Kirk Signetti, has been pretty consistent about this philosophy. He said he always, uh, has been a short practice guy, and it's gotten even shorter over time. Not because players can't handle more, but because more doesn't necessarily translate into better performance based on his experience. And he's actually a— for those that care— he's a disciple from the Nick Saban coaching tree. And Nick Saban is a process-oriented, work hard, be out on the field. I mean, he— that's a totally different thought coming out of Nick Saban. So Signetti was exposed to that and has since pivoted his approach. What he believes is that fatigue doesn't make you sharper, that more volume doesn't necessarily make you smarter, and that at this stage of the game, at this level of football, toughness for toughness' sake doesn't win games. In November and December and into January. What he believes is that fresh players who can think clearly, that's who wins games. So let's now bridge this over to business. Let's, let's translate this a bit. Let's talk about why this matters beyond, beyond football. Most businesses operate the way I think most football programs do. They're busy, The calendars are crowded. Their meetings are endless. There's long days. There's lots of visible effort. People wear exhaustion like a badge of honor. But if you're honest, very little of that activity is actually rehearsing the moments that decide the outcomes. Most companies look like Indiana before the turnaround. They're working hard. They're trying a lot. They're feeling tired. But they're not noticeably sharper where it counts. I think the takeaway here is that the win doesn't come from adding more work. It comes from identifying leverage. Every bit— every business has third downs. Every business has red zone or, or crunch 2-minute, you know, 2 minutes left in the, in the half or in the game type of moments. Moments where execution matters far more than effort. In business, that might be in a pricing conversation or a leadership hire or some sort of high-stakes presentation or a renewal save, maybe a difficult feedback conversation. Those moments right there that I just described, they decide outcomes, not the 100 emails that you send in between those events. See, Indiana didn't become the best team in the country by practicing longer. They became better by practicing smarter and by protecting energy so that clarity showed up when it mattered. So here's the action item for you this week. I want you to identify 2 or 3 moments in your business where execution matters most, and I want you to, to be honest with yourself. Identify these things, not the things that feel busy, but the things that actually swing results. Once you've identified these 2 or 3 moments in your business where the execution matters most, I want you to ask yourself a simple question: are we deliberately practicing these moments, or are we just hoping we'll perform well when they show up? So again, pick the 2 or 3 where execution matters most, and then ask yourself, are we deliberately practicing these moments, or are we just hoping we'll perform well when they show up? What you're able to do then is strip time from low-leverage activity and reallocate it. Maybe it's role-play the conversation. Maybe it's review past wins and losses. Maybe it's getting clearer before you get busier. In summary, just like Indiana, you don't win by doing more. You win by doing what matters better. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.