On Saturday, August 17th during their pre-season game against the Detroit Lions, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes did it again.
On third down and three yards to go from Detroit’s 33-yard-line, Mahomes took the snap from center. Lions edge rusher Josh Pascal broke through the line of scrimmage disrupting the play. As Paschal pushed Mahomes to his right, it created the perfect angle for what happened next.
Mahomes, the first to do the intentional no-look pass and the originator of the spinning huddle, then performed the first behind-the-back pass in over 60 years to tight end Travis Kelce. Click the image below to watch a video of the play.
After reading this article from The Athletic, I gleaned the following four leadership lessons on creativity from the behind-the-scenes story of the behind-the-back pass.
Practice Makes Perfect…. and Permanent
Leaders are either coaching something or allowing it to happen. Few leaders in any industry foster a culture of innovation as much as Chiefs head coach Andy Reid.
After the game, Coach Reid said, “I heard he blamed it on Kelce, but that’s all right. (Mahomes) does it in practice, so I’m all right with it as long as it’s a completion. They do it in basketball (almost) every game, so it’s not that big of a deal.”
If you want a culture of innovation in your organization, leaders must encourage, practice, and reward it.
Communication Can Never Be Assumed
One of the foundations of any healthy relationship is clear communication. Mahomes and Kelce have had one of the healthiest and most successful quarterback-receiver relationships in the game’s history. But on this play, as memorable as it was, there was a lack of communication between the two.
Mahomes said, “We had the leverage we wanted. I should’ve known because (Kelce) asked me what (route) he had as he was motioning over. You can kind of see him look back at me.”
Kelce said, “You know he’s got the voice thing. He kind of mumbled out the play and I couldn’t hear it. I was walking up to the line and I was trying to decipher what he was saying. Before I knew it, he snapped the ball and then I kind of saw him out of my peripheral run to the sideline, so I was trying to go help my guy out. By the time I looked over there, he was already in mid-form, like a photo on a sports card, throwing the ball to me, so I guess right place at the right time.”
Though the play turned out well, the lack of communication is something these two future Hall of Famers will certainly work on.
Communication can never be assumed. It must always be nurtured.
The Value Of Successful Failures
Mahomes was not pleased with the lack of communication. He told the NFL Network, “I was pissed off at Travis. He was supposed to run a flat route. … I’m yelling at him and then he doesn’t run it. So out of spite, I threw a behind-the-back pass, but now it’s gonna be a highlight.”
If we have worked hard on our preparation and communication, there will be times we back into something worthwhile on our way to excellence. This is what is called a “Successful Failure.”
We should always strive for excellence but will not always achieve it. But out of the rubble of those mistakes, we often find something of excellence we did not previously know existed.
Never Confuse Outliers With Staples
If you go to a grocery store, the most popular traffic patterns include fruits, vegetables, meat, milk, sugar, and flour. These are called staples. Your more unique products like caviar are not easy to find. These are outliers, it is a one-off.
The most successful organizations never confuse outliers with staples. Success is built around staples because of its sustainability. Mahomes understands this. He said, “I always told you that if it’s going to happen, it’s going to have to happen naturally. I can’t force it. It probably looked pretty cool. It’s not something I want to try to major in. It might be something that just kind of happens every once in a while.”
Behind-the-back passes, no-look passes, and spinning huddles are outliers. We will see them from Mahomes and the Chiefs periodically, and it will be spectacular when we do. But you should count on the Chiefs continuing to win with defense, the running game, and a mid-range passing attack.
Staples win championships.
Conclusion
Creative individuals and organizations do the following:
- Practice
- Never Assume Communication
- Value Successful Failures
- Never Confuse Outliers With Staples
Which one of these can you work on to increase innovation at your organization?
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