Recently I have been reading some work by Susanna Rahkamo. Susanna is a former competitive ice dancer who, with her partner Petri Kokko, achieved the 1995 European Championship Gold and the 1995 World Silver Medal honours, along with strong olympic competition results. Susanna has a very interesting perspective on sport. I came across her work by chance and am happy that I have. She has served as the Finnish Figure Skating Association President and is now the Vice President of the Finnish Olympic Committee as well as working as a Leadership Consultant.
I was very happy when she agreed to share her 2016 doctoral dissertation titled, ‘The Road to Exceptional Expertise and Success’. Susanna’s interest is in the role of creativity as an element of expertise. To be good or even match the best previous performances, one need only to replicate what others have done before. However, to surpass previous achievements, a novel achievement is needed. When striving to surpass best ever performances, an element of creativity is required which extends the current state of knowledge, performance and expertise.
I am still in the middle of reading her interesting work but the creative approach taken by Susanna and Petri is inspiring and it puts creativity on my list of key performance elements.
In her own sports career, she and her partner were faced with the reality of competing against the established Russian Ice dance system that dominated the sport. By Susanna’s account, Finland lacked such a strong organizational system and culture of excellence. They soon realized that trying to beat the best in the world at their own game would be futile. With the realization that the pair would need to find their own way to capture the judges attention, they embarked on a spectacular and innovative career, unlocking the ridged culture of the ice dancing world. Working to show expertise rather then replicate it, the pair reached the top of the world stage and to iconic status in their home country. In reviewing Susanna’s story, I am struck by the courage required to discard the status quo and forge a new path while all the ‘experts’ promoted the proven pathway.
Reflecting on Susanna’s journey and my own experiance in coaching, I realize key turning points in my teams and even my personal development occurred when I had the willingness to fight the status quo and go against the grain. Although I don’t pretend to have changed the sport, my role as a coach is to transform an existing team culture in order to surpass the previous best. The role of coach is the same as performer as they both require the same level of creativity in order to excel and go beyond the normal coaching development pathways. I have chosen to be a life long learner in the field of sports science and have sought out partnerships and mentors with unique approaches and philosophies. At each step away from the tried and true path, personal coaching advances have been achieved.
In my sport of Sprint Canoe & Kayak, the majority of athletes are found in eastern Canada. Lake Banook, in Dartmouth Nova Scotia, is the home to three of the largest Canoe/Kayak clubs and is the site of a National High Performance training centre. Within this small region there are nine teams. Together this represents one of the more densely populated regions for sprint canoe in the world. In this region I was developed, first as an athlete then as a coach. In contrast, western Canada clubs are isolated with sometimes more then a full days drive to the next team. These clubs have considerably smaller membership numbers. The disparity between depth of performance and expertise across these regions is extreme.
Although there may be very different environments between Canoe Kayak Teams in each Canadian region, as there was between Susanna’s Finland and the dominant Russian Team of the time, there is no creativity in how Sprint Canoe Kayak events are scored. It is simply a first-past-the-post event and the fastest athletes over the set distance are the champions. Therefore, creativity in my sport is largely limited to the process teams develop to out-perform the rest.
I’ve coached in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan, so I am familiar with the big and the small, the rich and the poor, the clubs with long history and culture and the new start-ups. Regardless the current state, when taking on a new club or team I often hear the same message, we are not like ‘they’ are and what works there won’t work here. Yet the reality remains, what is the normal way of doing things if this new team is not producing the desired performances. Change is needed.
It is natural to look at successful neighbours and to world leaders for a model. So often the question is asked: what do they do? Perhaps some of these practices can be adopted yet others are specific to the individual context. Regardless, new actions must be taken since simply doing the same thing leads to a variation on the unacceptable status quo. For things to change, things must change. Change is welcome by some and always resisted by others. Creativity is change and creativity takes courage. It is a step into the unknown and onto a new path.
When I took on a new team in Ontario, one early change was to strengthen the sense of ‘team’ among the athletes and staff. To do so, we broke away from participation in a major provincial team spring camp initiative. Politically, it took courage, however, my athletes were so often integrated with our partner clubs, it was hurting our own ability to function as a team. Pulling our group together for our own 4-week spring camp was an opportunity that started us down the road that lead to a National Championship 5 years later.
In contrast, the opposite approach was needed with a western team. The Western team was geographically isolated from the bulk of the paddlers in the country and only interacted perhaps once a year at the Canadian Championships. In this case, the action taken was to move our teams’ spring camp to a location near the national team and most of the stronger eastern clubs. The move made it possible to gain exposure to and interact with larger groups. This was a big change from what was the ‘norm’ at the time. To further this agenda, we took a 4-week van tour across Canada taking part in major events. We visited as many clubs as possible and joined in on their training sessions. This was a big eye opener for the team who had only known their local sport environment. Six years later, these same athletes were regulars on top of the Canadian Podium and representing Canada in international events. These two decisions to deviate from the normal way of doing things were the foundation of future successes.
Unfortunately, to take on these projects meant also breaking away from the existing sport way of doing things and upsetting our partners. In the later case, the 4-week tour meant we would not be attending local events and therefore wearing our region’s events in the short term. It also meant the bulk of our club members would not have the head coach or their training partners at the club since we could not take everyone. Although at the time I did not see these decisions as being creative, I did understand that we were doing things differently. The willingness to break from the norm was needed for a shift in performance. Going against the grain always builds resistance.
As an athlete and then a coach in a strong region, I never questioned how ‘we’ did things. I assumed what others were doing was the ‘best approach’.
I assumed it was the right way as I had lots of top performing athletes, coaches and teams to study and learn from. I used the language they used and adopted their methods and teaching tricks without hesitation. It was not until I took over an isolated western team that these influences were removed.
Separating myself from the well established culture allowed me to develop my own methods and those specifically matched to the context. I was forced to get creative. The willingness to challenge the status quo is the key to creativity, for if not, how can a new course of action be found? Rather than copying those around me, I had to search for better ways to coach and advance my athletes. It allowed me to question previous assumptions and break away from the same methods that others were using. Reflecting back now, I see this as a key spark in my creative coaching. Where I would look for answers before, now I searched for relevant questions.
More then ever my coaching began to model the scientific method. The scientific method is basically a process of developing a theory, taking action, assessment and based on results, modifying the action. The scientific method is a tool for exploration into the unknown. It is also a tool to assess novel and creative endeavours. It can be used by coaches and athletes to lead to a collaborative style of teaching technical skills. After a discussion with athletes on what outcomes are needed, I enjoy a Socratic form of questioning to challenge their assumptions and lead them to ask questions of their own. This ultimately leads to a deeper understanding of the required skill. Often, and it is my hope, the athletes then turn the process around and teach me a new and very personalized approach to mastering the task. As a result, my athletes and I will seem to talk in a kind of secret code that no other coach can identify. Each personalized method and drill is named by the athlete and contains a deep meaning. It is fantastic fun!
Prior to reading Susanna’s work, I did not consider creativity as one of my key performance elements in achieving excellence. However, in reflection of my personal coaching experiences, I now see that each of the small and large steps away from the well traveled path have made my coaching style unique and has empowered me with the willingness to be creative and go against the grain.
BE CREATIVE!