We Don't Seperate

Brett Ledbetter is an author and speaker who works with some of the best athletes, coaches, and programs in the country developing character and championship cultures.

He works regularly with the Gonzaga men's basketball team on what they call PGMs - Personal Growth Meetings. The goal of these meetings is to use engaging quotes and videos to lead discussions about goals, standards, and adversity, discussions on how to develop championship character, and discussions on how to develop championship cultures.

In one meeting, he told the Gonzaga team a story about how when he worked with the 2016 Florida Gator softball team, their senior leaders wanted their mantra for the year to be 'Brick by Brick,' 

When the athletes at Florida told him that, Brett showed the team an outstanding Ted Talk by Margaret Heffernan. The quote that stood out to him the most was:

"What motivates people are the bonds and loyalty and trust they develop between each other. What matters is the mortar, not just the bricks.” 

ESPN later asked one of the Florida senior leaders, "What does your team need to do to 3-peat?" She said, "We have to unite," so they combined the ideas of mortar and unite. 

In a later meeting, the Florida coach gave every athlete a brick. On one side of the brick, they wrote their name, and on the other side, they wrote one word that they were going to bring to the team. Brett said that it was an emotional moment for the team because everyone cared for each other.

Their coach then asked the team to build a wall, and he asked a senior to push over the wall, and the wall collapsed. The coach asked the team, "When we get knocked down, do we separate?"

They then built the wall a second time, but this time, they learned how to make mortar to strengthen the wall so that when it was knocked down, the bricks wouldn’t separate. The seniors put their bricks on the top because they had been there the longest, they had invested the most, and they had the most to lose.

After they built the wall, it stayed in the locker room as a visual cue: 

“When we get knocked, we don't separate. Our mortar connects us; we don't separate."

ASK YOURSELVES:

1 - What is our mortar? What is the thing that connects us? What is the thing that keeps our team from separating when we fall?