Facing Change
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EDITORIAL
Facing Change McIntyre R. Louthan
Published online: 4 February 2010 Ó ASM International 2010
Austin, my 15-year-old grandson, plays high school basketball. This year, because his family moved from Fayetteville, Georgia, to Wilmington, North Carolina, he had the relatively rare opportunity of playing at two different high schools during the same season. He faced two try-outs, integrated with two groups of teammates and experienced two very different coaching styles. The change from Whitewater High School in Fayetteville to Hoggard High School in Wilmington wasn’t easy for Austin but basketball certainly helped with the transition. Austin’s transition to Hoggard High began over the Christmas break with his tryout for the basketball team. He is a point guard and while at Whitewater had been a team leader, bringing the ball up the floor and initiating the offence. He earned this role a year ago while he played on the Whitewater Middle School team and on a Whitewater AAU team during the summer. Austin had no established credentials at Hoggard High and had earn a place on the team during the Christmas break try-out. Although he never actually said so, I could tell that Austin was proud to become a part of Hoggard High School basketball. He transitioned from a visitor without credentials to a working team member through three basic accomplishments: 1. 2.
3.
gaining acceptance from the coaches by demonstrating skill on the basketball court, gaining on-court acceptance from his teammates by focusing on teamwork and using his skills to help the team’s performance, and gaining off-court acceptance by becoming a friend.
M. R. Louthan (&) Box 623, Radford, VA 24143, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Facing change is never easy. Success in new situations generally requires gaining acceptance and skill; teamwork and friendship contribute substantially toward that acceptance. I’ve been involved in metallurgy and failure analysis for roughly 50 years and during that time a number of people have become my teammates. Some of these people became essential parts of the team, some minor contributors, and some disrupted the team concept. Fortunately, most have become essential team members, but by analyzing the failures, I conclude that failure was generally associated with an inability or unwillingness to strive toward the three basic accomplishments that Austin had to demonstrate to his Hoggard High coaches and team members. Metallurgists who demonstrated great skill to the bosses but failed to focus their skills on teamwork either left for another organization or became relatively bitter individuals, striving for success as a Lone Ranger rather than finding synergy in working as a team. Becoming a friend and finding social enjoyment with other members of the organization never even entered their minds. Other metallurgists were always considered competitors, never teammates. Whenever we simply strive to impress the boss, potential teammates get shoved aside and our path through life becomes littered with minor accom
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