Episode 66: The Passing of John Madden - Teaching and Learning

Welcome to another edition of “Around with Randall,” your weekly podcast making your nonprofit more effective for your community. And here is your host, the CEO and Founder of Hallett Philanthropy, Randall Hallett.

It’s another wonderful day right here on “Around with Randall.” Today, a conversation that may be a little bit more theoretical with just a little bit of practical at the end, but coming out of the holidays and coming into the calendar year 2022, something happened that surprised how much it affected me. John Madden passed away and for many people listening here they may not know who John Madden is, or was, but it affected me and let me tell you a little bit why, because it was a context in a larger conversation about teaching and learning.

John Madden was a football coach. He was kind of born to be a football coach, was an NFL football coach. And, then, even though went into broadcasting stayed a football coach, his impact on the game is undeniable, which I’ll talk about in a second. But, what's maybe more important is the way in which, both personally, one-on-one, and then to the larger broadcast audience, he taught and he listened, was an educator, and a learner. From a football perspective, graduate of Cal Poly, played offensive line, was going to play in the then AFL, got hurt just before the season started, couldn't play, became a coach for the Oakland Raiders, eventually an assistant coach, after a couple of stints in college, and at a very young age of 32 was picked by Al Davis in the 60s to become the head coach of the Oakland Raiders. You may say, “why is that important?” I’ll even add one more thing. He only coached for 10 years, and in 1979 or so retired. Why is all this important? Believe it or not, even though the Super Bowl trophy for the world championship is named for Vince Lombardi, the great Green Bay Packers coach, and many say Pete Roselle who kind of brought the NFL into the modern age, or Lamar Hunt, who created the AFL and was instrumental in the merger in the 1960s. 

John Madden has the highest winning percentage of any coach in NFL history, and when he retired he said “I’ve given everything I have to the game.” In coaching there will never be another day in which he coaches. He left and retired 42 and was quickly taken in into the television booth in the early 1980s. Why is all of this important? Well, if you've watched an election, so let's go back to any one of the recent elections. So maybe you like Steve Kornacki at his little board or you like John King at his board, Fox News has their guy at their board and if you watch the main networks they do too. That was created by John Madden. In football he would draw on the screen, called a telestrator, to show people what was happening in the football game. He was teaching football to the audience. He is without question the most influential broadcaster in football, and a couple people in the last couple weeks have argued the most important broadcaster in terms of teaching in television history. 

The telestrator is something that he created along with the people at the time of CBS of how to show things on the screen, which we think of as today is second nature. Whiteboards and other things. He created this vernacular, this language that was very basic in football. You hear the term, “boom.” That was John Madden where he would describe something, “hey they're moving up the line and then boom it happens!” He spoke to America in a very common way so that people would understand him. 

He taught America football, so much so that when EA Sports put out its first video football game they went to John Madden and John Madden directed them as to what the game should look like, and it's called Madden Football. Madden. And it's the largest video game ever produced. In fact, I heard one broadcaster said, “I almost got divorced because I used to play it so much, and my wife would tell me I had to quit.”

So he's reached coaching legend, in the hall of fame. Broadcasting legend, he influenced broadcasters beyond football, and also this idea of the modern era or modern time when it comes to video games. But one other interesting thing and this is kind of the learning piece of the whole process here, he was the most popular football man in the world. He was afraid to fly so he took a bus, called it the Madden Cruiser and the legendary stories of people as he crisscrossed the country. Because he was doing broadcasts either every Sunday or Monday, he had to drive on a bus all over to these - all over all of the United States. He wanted to go on the back roads, and I’m from Nebraska, I live in Nebraska, as many of you know. There are legendary stories of him stopping in Broken Bow and Weeping Water, and he'd get out of the rest stop and he'd go to a farm and say how do you do what you do, how do you grow corn, legendary stories. In Wisconsin, “I’ve been getting out of the bus and saying tell me how you milk cow, how does this work?” The hall of fame broadcaster Al Michaels talks about the fact that the two of them are at dinner one night and Al Michaels doesn't like vegetables, he talks about it so I guess I can, and by the way I agree with him. Actually, ‘Im more of a vegetable person than a fruit person, but he wanted onion soup without the onions and John Madden thought that was crazy, so he went back and got the chef and said, “how do you make onion soup without onions, explain this to me. Do you put the broth in first how do you?” John Madden was fascinated by learning.

It also probably is important to realize that John Madden hadn't done an interview in a decade or more and was highlighted on Christmas Day, something I watched of an hour and a half special about the influence of John Madden on football and on life, and then ironically two or three days later he passes away, leaving a wife and two boys and countless grandchildren, great family, great people. Why did this hit me? Because in some ways I look at what I do, in a very poor comparison, to what John Madden does. I’m supposed to be the expert. I’m supposed to teach. I’m supposed to know the answers as a consultant and as a leader. When I was practicing the profession that I loved so much, nonprofit philanthropic fundraising work, was always the chief development officer chief philanthropy officer, what does this mean to me? And as I thought a lot about it, and I’ve used this analogy before, I used to be the Luke Skywalker. I was the young guy who knew nothing with a lightsaber kind of going by his own inclination, or the force, and was fighting the battles that needed to be fought, not even sure I knew where I was going. And now I just want to be Yoda. I just want to teach. I want others to be more successful. I want others to shine, and those are my clients and the people that I mentor and the people that I value who have future contributions into this world.

The theoretical here, or the the psychological, is that we're all students. We're all teachers. Sometimes, we're more student than teacher, depending on where we are in our life what we're talking about. Sometimes we're more teacher than student. We have to give to help others. And what I gathered and thought a lot about with John Madden was the people in my life that influenced me and how they did it and how John Madden didn't listen to people talk about, particularly with the special and then followed up so quickly by his death, this uniformed thought process of how people revered him for the way he was both teacher and learner. 

So what can you take from this? So this is the practical pieces, and I want to try to break out some thoughts because no matter if you're 22 and beginning in this profession, you are both a teacher and a student, a learner. You may do more learning than teaching but you're still both. And if you're a veteran, you are both a teacher and a student and a learner. You might do more teaching, but you are both what are the key components of each one and this is going to lead into when we finalize this with why people are leaving jobs. In many ways because they don't get to find people that can help them grow to be those teachers, to mentor them, or they don't have a chance to teach because they're too restricted. And we have a lot of people leaving right now, and in some ways I’d like to see pay raise and i've talked a lot about this, but in the long term, in the short term, that's not going to be possible. We're going to have to take some long-term steps to improve salaries with fundraisers, in particular. So in the short term there are things we can do to make the environment better, and I think teaching and learning is a critical component of that. 

So if you're on the learning side, how should you learn? What are the key concepts of learning? And I think the biggest one is accepting deficiency that you have something to learn, and that's about vulnerability. It's hard for people, including myself, to say “gosh I don't know…” I remember in law school that I had the former dean, Bob Popper, who's passed away, tell us that the best lawyers in the world weren't the ones who knew everything, because the law is so expansive nobody knows everything. But it's the ones who know where to go look for it or know who to call to find out who are the experts in that limited area that are the best lawyers, and I always took that to heart. When you admit you don't know everything there is a vulnerability. How do others see you? And what we have to realize is, most people are okay with that because not everybody knows everything. Nobody knows everything. The question is, can you admit it and can you learn about it? I am notorious for watching television with my iPhone, not to watch a second show. I’m not really much of a millennial, but I’m always googling around something if i'm watching it, and I love history, watching something historical maybe a docudrama or or show that maybe looks back in time, i'm always googling around it to figure out what are the connections, who else was living, is this true, what are the things going on in their life, what was life like at the time. That's my way of learning. We need to accept that deficiency and that vulnerability and be okay with it. If you're a really good learner. 

And then the second big one is you need to listen. I find that there's a difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is hearing audible sound. Listening is taking it in and doing something with it. And all too often we tend to hear but we don't listen because listening is about activity. It's about taking something in and doing something with it, changing behavior or language or thought or at least contemplating it. 

Part of my role in consulting and then that as a leader, going looking back on my career, was trying to convey direction, and it's frustrating when I know someone's hearing me but they're not actually listening. Maybe because of the all the mistakes I’ve made, maybe because of the gray hair that if you're watching this, if you're not you can imagine it, all the gray hair I have, I’ve made enough mistakes to learn a couple things along the way. I want to pass that along. I’m not doing the the teaching because I think I’m better than someone. I’d like for them to not make the same mistakes I make. Are they listening? Are you listening? And even if you have an issue with your boss, your supervisor, you're not in total agreement, there's always things you can learn if you're willing to listen, even if it's not how to do something, if how to avoid a problem. 

I think the other thing is the idea as a learner of respecting your elders, those that have been there before you. Even though my parents had no cell phones no computers, dad had his own company but did it much differently than I do mine. Am I respectful of his experience? What can I get out of him? Even though we do different things that can be of value to what I’m trying to do, that's professionally. How about personally? Raising children is not easy. I love doing it. I’m fortunate my wife is amazing at it but it's not easy. My parents raised three kids in a totally different time. There was no social media. There were no computers. What from that experience when I hear them. Am I respectful enough to take in? May not all be applicable but am I willing to learn?

The last thing is being willing to ask, explain that to me. He explained it to me differently. I didn't quite get that can you tell me more about that? Being respectful. And what you'll find as a learner is, people who want to teach love to do so, and sometimes need that opening to feel as if it's appropriate for them to do so.

Are you a learner? Are you listening? Are you accepting vulnerability? Are you respectful and are you asking for more? To learn more if you're the teacher, I really believe in the concept of observational learning or the observational theory. That it's like my kids. I had a recent example with our son which still makes me laugh. He came home from school just before the break and literally broke down in tears, said he was sorry. My wife calls me at the office and she goes I don't know what's going on we got on speaker phone like “Jay, what happened bud. This is a second grader, pretty much toes the line every day and he says, I got in trouble with one of the helpers. What'd you say. What you do? Because well I told one of the players on on our recess soccer team to pass the damn ball, and he told me I couldn't say that and that was the entire punishment was just don't do that,” and I had to realize observational learning. He gets that from me. I’m not a big swearer, but I have been known to say throw the damn ball, pass the damn ball, catch the damn ball, not to my son but usually the Nebraska football. There's been a lot of those moments over the last couple of years. He observed it. As a teacher, what are other people observing about you, your habits, how you dress, are you on time, are you prepared, are you honest, are you forthright, are you willing to accept suggestions…

Think about John Madden. If we go back and make this connection, is that he demonstrated this when he got off the bus at rest stops in central Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, wherever, and started asking questions of other people. How do you do what you do? If you're watching john madden what a great example. This is one of the most popular people in sports, American sports world. I can learn from someone else. Do they listen? We talked about this on the learning side. On the teaching side, do you listen? Are you actually getting to the thing that your pupil, your mentee actually wants, or are you just running over them? Are you asking and probing? Is this what you wanted? when someone sends me an email, I try to send back, is this okay? Does this help? Because I want them to know it's okay to say “No, you missed the point, or it's not quite what I was looking for, or I need this.” I want to grant them that opening. 

Teaching is also about opening yourself, opening yourself to the possibility of what's needed by the learner, by the mentee. Are you using a common language? Are using a language everyone can understand? That's one of John Madden's greatest tools. He changed the way broadcasting was, not to talk to you like he is a highfalutin football coach but he is your next-door neighbor with a beer in his hands explaining how a passing game works. And my wife could understand it. Doesn't like football. And I could understand it, and I played quarterback in high school. There's a magic to that language of creating a common kind of level setting, understanding of what the concept is and what we're trying to accomplish. Can you do that as a teacher?

You need to think about how to be both this idea of the learner even at my age I need to learn every day. I’m a lifelong one. That's why I’ve got all this education that's formal. There's also informal learning. Are you listening? Are you accepting the deficiencies? Are you willing to be vulnerable? And if you're a teacher are you accepting that role? Can you, from an observational perspective, let others see all the good things in the way you do them, and can you probe and ask and engage people where they're at in a language that makes sense. We need to all be learners and teachers, and even if you don't agree or you're having an issue with someone or you just don't agree all the time or it just doesn't always work, you can learn from them. And if you're the teacher you can teach them. John Madden. Teacher and learner. Good reminder coming out of the holidays in 2022, a great mantra for this year for Hallett Philanthropy, and certainly most importantly for Randall Hallett.

Don't forget the website www.hallettphilanthropy.com. Check out things, great updates with client successes, there's the blogs-  two or three per week - 90 second reads on different things, and then of course you can reach out to me, email me, podcast@hallettphilanthropy dot com. If you complain about something that's reeks at hallettphilanthropy.com. Don't forget in this profession we are doing such amazing things to make the world a better place individually, community, collectively. I want you to feel that every day. And don't forget my all-time favorite saying, “some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, then there are those who wondered what happened.” Nonprofit work, philanthropies, all about people making things happen for people wondering what happened. We got a lot of people in this world that are wondering what happened, which means we need more philanthropy, love of mankind, to make this world a better place. And I hope you get a chance to realize your impact and a chance to do it not only today but this year. And every time, every second that you have an opportunity to do so. Can't thank you enough for joining me right here on “Around with Randall.” We'll see you next time, and don't forget make it a great day.