dispatches from the new world of work

Excellence, 25 and Still Counting!

About three days from now, if history is a teacher, coach Skip Kenney will chalk up his 26th (TWENTY-SIX!) consecutive Pac 10 swimming championship. When he won #14, legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden made the presentation—Kenney had broken coach Wooden's Pac 10 consecutive championship record. At 25 in a row, Kenney's feat stands alone in the annals of NCAA records—and the Pac 10 is as competitive-tough a playground (pool) as exists.

The current issue of Stanford's alumni magazine, which tells us that Ronald Reagan was in his first term when the streak started, features Kenney in an article titled "Master Stroke." It more or less begins this way: "The first thing you need to know about Skip Kenney, the 63-year-old coach of the Stanford men's swim team, is that he never swam competitively. Since he arrived at Stanford in 1979, Kenney has won seven NCAA titles, coached 100 different All-Americans, served on three Olympic staffs and won an astonishing 25 Pac-10 titles in a row. A generation-spanning community of swimmers and former swimmers would all 'lie down in traffic for him,' according to one, Adam Messner, class of 2001. But he has never swum a 3000 for time, never churned out 100 kicks on 90-second intervals, never spent so much as an hour with his face in the water, staring at the black line. 'I can't even imagine,' he says."

Kenney's secret, if you must call it that, is turning an individualistic sport into a team sport—no mean feat. Every team member is evaluated first and foremost, the article says, on his special contribution to the team.

Hats off to a performance and a process that defines Excellence—and as a Stanford alum, good luck this weekend!

Tom Peters posted this on 02/21/07.

Comments

1. Outstanding - and envy Stanford Alumni status - Stanford/Skip is about everything that is RIGHT in university-lifestyles ...

2. "... coaching by intuition ... Marine military mind ... mind takes over - body follows ... nobody got sick ... life on the line & mind is free ..."

Posted by sean_outstanding at February 21, 2007 2:26 PM

Tom

Don't you just love the contribution that good teachers and coaches make to the world. They play such an integral and important part in moulding the next generation of our community leaders. WOW! Skip Kenney is truly a legend.

Skip Kenney is the essence of what my son and I experienced on our recent tour of Stanford. My son is a candidate for entry in 2012 and he was impressed by what he perceived as a tangible sense of team spirit, intellectual vigor, reserved confidence, driven curiosity, youthful energy, friendliness and determination. I should add that my son is not easily impressed even though he is only 13 years old. For example, he can not wait to get to Stanford to help boost their not so great Men's Volleyball team.

We both say GO Skip Kenney and GO STANFORD!

Richard

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at February 21, 2007 4:01 PM

This is also amazing because it's done in college athletics. At best you get athletes for four years, so you need keep the recruting funnel full. And, if you're at a school that takes academic standards seriously, like Stanford, those recruits must be good in the classroom, too.

Posted by Wally Bock at February 22, 2007 10:31 AM

The amazing thing is that two of the greatest leaders in the US are collegiate swimming coaches. Skipâ€™s good friend, and rival, Eddie Reese has a 27-year conference winning streak. Both men are great coaches, and even better people, caring more about the development of the athletes as people than their success in the pool. Granted the success in the pool is still achieved (between the two coaches, they have won 12 of the past 19 Menâ€™s NCAA championships). A lot can, and should, be learned from these two amazing individuals.

Posted by Bryan Jones at February 22, 2007 11:21 AM

The fact is that TP is a sham. Think about the facts. 25 years of searching, what do we have? Are the companies that were in the S&P 500 25 years ago here and stronger? Where is the company example that Tom built? He has pitched ideas. Ok good ideas....The Wright Brothers were told by everyone that there would never be planes. Look what they accomplished. People come and listen to Tom and are inspired, where is the proof of that value? Companies have not been excellent since the publishing os Search. I beleive the search is easier then the creation of. Where, for the love of god is Tom's plane?

Posted by Jay at February 24, 2007 8:44 PM

This posting is quite informative and I had not really known about Skip Kenney and his accomplishments. Quite a resume!! I will soon be adding something about him to my weblenses on Squidoo.com. I have been researching Peak Performance and Performance Psychology issues over the past few years and this weblens: Peak Performance Pulse (http://www.squidoo.com/valdes), is a compilation of some of that research. Take a look and let me know what you think of the site. Please pass it along to anyone you think might be interested.

Best, Luis Valdes

Posted by Luis Valdes at March 14, 2007 4:27 PM

Alternatively, there are some significant concerns about his ethics that must be considered, along with his record of achievements:

http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_5555014

http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_5432078

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/09/STANFORDSWIM.TMP

Posted by Joan at April 9, 2007 5:29 PM