Doug Lemov on Making People Better

Doug Lemov is the author of the International Bestseller Teach Like a Champion. That title really does speak to Doug and his background in the education system, but also that idea of a champion. “Play like a champion” is a line that Notre Dame Football uses in their locker room (and perhaps you know of the sign they hit before they enter the field), so “teach like a champion” is a nice play on that concept. Doug really does live at the intersection of sport and education, teaching and coaching, and that book, Teach Like a Champion, is now in its 3rd version and has had wild success, especially in the world of education and teaching and coaching. He also has written The Coach’s Guide to Teaching and is the co-author of many books. He’s a writer, he’s someone who likes to be with his computer and create theories, ideas, competencies, and concepts that can serve other people. In addition to his work studying teachers, he also is somebody who is obsessed with coaching in the sports world. He writes his books by studying what high performing teachers do, which then can help us better understand how we learn and how we educate in and outside of the classroom. So, he definitely has his roots in education, but has expanded his range to include the sports world. This is a conversation about sport, about education, and more importantly, about learning (and Doug is an elite thinker when it comes to learning and teaching).

Doug had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“My goal was to find high performing schools in underprivileged communities. And it turns out they’re there” (6:50).

“Coaching is a form of teaching” (8:05).

“I think schools are the most important institutions in society. And when they don’t work, it’s morally untenable” (9:40).

“You can really only think of one thing at a time. If you try to think about too many things at a time, things leave you’re working memory; you can’t remember them” (13:45).

“When you plan a session, don’t just plan what you want to have happen. Write out notes on what A+ execution looks like… and what are the mistakes that students are likely to make so that I’m more likely to see them” (16:10).

“They don’t care what you say until they know that you care” (17:00).

“Really the way to show people that you value them and care, especially in an endeavor where people want to get better, is to make them better and to be an effective teacher” (17:35).

“Teaching well is one of the primary ways that teachers show that they care” (17:45).

“One of the most overlooked moments in coaching is a player gets it right and doesn’t know they got it right because no one’s watching carefully and no one says that’s exactly it, do it again” (20:50).

“The most motivating thing is your own success” (21:50).

“I’m not saying I don’t believe in transformational leadership, but I think it starts with the transaction in most cases” (22:35).

“There’s a danger in skipping the transaction and going right for the transformation” (22:45).

“There’s a risk of wanting to be loved as a teacher” (23:10).

“One of the biggest challenges of the teaching profession is it’s an incredibly lonely, isolating job” (29:45).

“If everybody’s looking for everything, then nobody is looking for anything” (31:05).

“Watching is so underrated as a teaching and coaching skill” (32:05).

“Experts and novices learn differently” (33:40).

“I think the world of schools has to be a lot more serious about understanding what the cognitive science tells us (and doesn’t) and how it shapes learning” (37:25).

“It’s so easy to underestimate the amount of discipline it takes [to change a habit]” (44:30).

“One of the reasons that people don’t build off of other people’s ideas in meetings is because they don’t remember who said what” (53:35).

“The purpose of discussion is to change your ideas based on what people in the room said” (54:25).

“Social science researchers find that gratitude is one of the most beneficial emotions that you can feel” (59:50).

“For me, equity is about helping every young person, or every learner, have the option, have the ability, to be the person that they aspire to be” (1:04:50).

“The way to honor people is to invest in them and to teach them well and to hold them to high expectations and to say, ‘That’s not your best work’” (1:05:40).

“I think people mistake authority for authoritarianism” (1:06:55).

“Your job [as parents] is not to make [your kids] happy in every interaction” (1:11:20).

Additionally, you can follow Doug on Twitter and LinkedIn. You can also find the Teach Like a Champion website here, where you can check out Doug’s blog along with much more.

Thank you so much to Doug for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.