The Pipeline

by Don Harkey

First, I want to apologize to my readers for the gaps between posts lately! Its been an extraordinarily busy couple of weeks and my normal posting time has been compromised.

As you may or may not know, I grew up in Nebraska and attended college in Lincoln. I have always been a rabid Cornhusker fan. Until the past 8 or 9 years, Nebraska has been one of the dominant forces in college football. A key to this success was their running game and a key to the running game was the offensive line. The offensive line program at Nebraska became known as "the Pipeline" because they always managed to find and develop great talent at the position.

The key was finding kids who not only had some talent, but more importantly were willing to work hard and develop under Nebraska's system. Nebraska has always been a leader in athelete development using the concept of the "training table" long before most teams. The "training table" is a carefully controlled diet for the athletes designed provide them with the right fuel to supplement their training program and weight lifting.

The result on the field was impressive. Under Coach Osborne, Nebraska never won fewer than 9 games in a season and won 3 National Titles in the last 4 years of Osborne's tenure. A few of those teams manaaged to average 400+ yards of rushing per game. Early in Osborne's tenure, many people took note of Osborne's "simple" offense which consisted of 8 to 10 basic plays. A reporter once asked Switzer how easy it was to cover an offense that was so "predictable". His answer was (and I'm paraphrasing) "sure we know what they are going to do and how to cover it... its stopping it that is the real challenge". In other words, Nebraska depended on execution over surprise. They depended on winning the one to one matchups. As one Florida Linebacker said after their 62-24 loss in the 1996 National Championship Game (again, I'm paraphrasing), "We saw that a lot of defenses were in the right positions against them and just weren't making the plays. Darn it if that didn't also happen to us!".

Organizations should always establish "pipelines" of employees who are being trained as "starters" for the organization. When a new employee comes into the organization, what strengths do they bring? What development do they need to better use those strengths? Does the organization have the right strengths to lead it into the future? This question is overlooked by many organizations, especially during times of economic stress where cutbacks and layoffs overshadow development and training.

Identify your pipelines within your organization and make sure it is always full. Identify the skills needed to operate your organization and match them up with people who are ready to execute and who will be ready to execute in the future. Your organization will be much healthier and can win more of the "1 on 1" battles everyday that will add up to success!