Chasing the Extraordinary

My travels took me to Eugene Oregon recently for my second visit to the University of Oregon as a member of the Admission Advisory Board.  Last year I shared I was recruited, along with other west coast high school principals, to serve on this board to share our perspectives with the University along with the University in turn sharing the various aspects of their school.  On my October visit, I heard from over 25 high school principals from Colorado, Hawaii, all over California and Oregon.  My wife and I then attended a VIP tailgate party prior to attending the Oregon vs. Arizona football game broadcasted on ESPN.  Yes, they lost the game but we got to see the Duck mascot body surf the entire student section!  The next day I toured the new OU football and sports complexes before returning back to campus to hear from the Law School Dean.  It was a fun trip and it allowed me and my wife the opportunity to experience the athletics of the school.

One major take away from the Eugene trip was the tour I received from their Athletic Director, Rob Mullens, 8am the following morning after the Duck football team lost their ESPN game vs. Arizona.  The other administrators I was with all joked the AD would pawn off the tour on one of his staff members but that was not the case.  Mr. Mullens was fully engaged and began the visit by going through a presentation in one of the team meeting rooms…more like a theater.  He shared the school athletics budget, goals and facilities but one area in particularly that struck me most was his vision statement: “Chasing the Extraordinary”.  

He said it in a very direct way.  He explained there are three things you need to achieve this goal:

1.

Talented staff-you have to hire multi-talented, caring, hardworking staff.

2.

Every team member is responsible for identifying areas for continuous improvement-say it in the meeting…not after the meeting.

3.

Decision making is much better with collective intelligence of the entire organization.

So as we continue to strategize with staff on how to make Reno High School the very best high school it can be...I think we can definitely apply some of these concepts. We continue to hire talented people when the opportunities present themselves and we must do this work together-as a team-with a shared commitment to becoming extraordinary. It seems to be working up there in Duckland.