A few days ago, Grant McCracken put up a great post based on a story from the New York Times Sunday Magazine on the coaching style of Texas Tech football Coach Leach. All I want to say is I love organizational development and I love football so this pi…

I should point out that many of the individual concepts employed by Leach are not original to him at all. It’s how he puts them together and teaches them to his players that’s truly unique.

For example, sending out five receivers on a play is not exactly a new idea. Most teams, including those using the West Coast offense, have plays that do this–they just don’t do it as frequently. Sending out five receivers against a five- or six-man rush means that you can only throw short passes, because the quarterback doesn’t have time for receivers to get deep. Most teams try to mix it up so the defense won’t know what’s coming.

Having an improvisational pass offense is also not new. The old Run&Shoot offense and its many offshoots were even more improvisational than Leach’s attack–all the receivers read coverages on the fly and adjusted their patterns, four or five receivers went out every play, etc. The Houston Oilers and Detroit Lions piled up big stats and got to the playoffs with the Run&Shoot, but never got over the hump. (Conventional coaching wisdom appears to be that the development of the zone blitz put it out of business.)

I would personally like to see what would happen to Texas Tech if the defense didn’t spread out its line to match the Red Raider splits. Put a man over the center and a man in each of the A gaps (center-guard spaces) and rush up the middle like a son of a bitch. “Strand” the offensive tackles so they have nobody to block and essentially are wasted players. Then you effectively have eleven defenders against eight or nine offensive players, and the QB has little time to throw. Okay, enough of my inner football geek.

In the words of BusinessWeek, Lafley is now “leading the most sweeping transformation of [P&G] since it was founded by William Procter and James Gamble in 1837.” His task is to establish “how to make P&G relevant in the 21st century, when speed and agility … matter more than heft.” As Lafley puts it:
We were looking at slow growth. An inability to move quickly, to commercialize on innovation and get full advantage out of it. We were looking at new technologies that were changing competition in our industry, retailers, and the supply base. We were looking at a world that all of a sudden was going to go 24/7, and we weren’t ready for that kind of world.
Best, Grant

This has been a great season for football, both college and pro. The Cowboys are so much better than they have been in years and the twin blowouts tonight by UT and USC prefigure a Rose Bowl game between titans.

Any chance you could elaborate on what’s going on at P&G or provide a link or two?