Using Video to Coach (summit)

In the past few years, videos have become more powerful and readily available on platforms like Vimeo and YouTube. Videos can evoke strong emotions and perspectives. For example, a basketball manager with Down syndrome scoring the winning shot inspired better teamwork between two departments. Another video on teamwork and rowing helped a leader motivate his team to practice different attributes each week. The key is to actively engage with the video, taking notes and discussing actions. Videos can be a valuable tool to supplement leadership messages and initiatives. One of the things that's happened, I would say, in the last five or six years is videos become so much more powerful. To create your own video, to find video, to use video is just exponentially positive and the resources are really unlimited to sites such as Vimeo or YouTube or what have you. Now why do we use video? Video stimulates differently. Let me share with you, and I've shared this story many times. If you look up on YouTube, basketball manager, Money Robert, it's about a minute and a half video about a young man who got to play his senior night, got in the basketball game. He's the manager and he has Down syndrome and he scores the last bucket of the game and gets carried off the court, not by his team, by both teams. I've played that before and you can tell people get emotionally affected by it and puts people in a position of better perspective. Why am I complaining? We had a client who literally did this between two departments and they weren't working well together. He was managing both departments. He played the video. Now, I did not suggest he do this, but it was very powerful and he played the video and he looked at the two departments where they sat across from each other. They didn't even sit next to each other and he said, you know what? We're so busy during the pandemic. Think about this kid's parents. Do we really have it that bad? And he got up and walked out of the meeting and he called me and I said, you walked out? He said, yeah. Let me tell you what happened. Two of the leaders, one from each team came to me and said, you know what? We don't want you to attend the meetings anymore. You are absolutely right. We are sitting here complaining while we're busy and other people are going through so much more. Video stimulates emotions. It stimulates feelings. Let me give you another one. There's a great video if you do motivational teamwork and rowing, R-O-W-I-N-G. It's a great video and it's about a two-minute video and it identifies, I think, seven or eight attributes of what makes a great team. You know, synchronization was one of the concepts and at the end there's a Vince Lombardi quote. It's a two-minute, no talking, very powerful music behind it and one leader that we had literally played this video and then he asked questions afterwards. When you look at that video, what are you going to do with one of those concepts starting today? He would play the video for eight weeks in a row. You had to choose a new attribute from the video. Again, the video talked about, I think, it was seven or eight attributes and he would just have people practice or put into motion, you know, synchronization. I think one of them was positivity and it was so cool the way he used it. The key to using video is to preempt and say, okay, before the video I'm going to ask all of you to take notes or have a responsibility of what you're going to do with this video. So don't passively watch. Play the video and ask questions of action. So what did you learn from this? What are you going to put into action? What was the concept that really excited you the most? What happens is, is the video, as long as it's in alignment with what you're coaching to, like teamwork or attitude or motivation or what have you, what you can do is have video become a great support tool. See, when you bring in other speakers or other tools, it's not just you talking. We don't want to admit this, but as leaders, people start to tune us out after a while. And this is a great way to supplement your message and your initiative.