Aaron U. Bolin, Ph.D.

How do you measure performance in a recreational league? Do you take into account bad umpires who don't seem to know the rules of the game? Does your assessment take into account teams from competitive leagues who stay sharp in the off-season by playing in a recreational league? Do the league mandated priorities of first fun, second learning, third winning play any role? Although we have one game remaining, we will end this season with a losing record (currently, we are 1-7-1). However, we started the season with 5 of 14 players who had significant problems hitting a pitched ball. At our last game, every player on our roster got a hit. We started the season with 7 of 14 players who did not understand the basic flow of the game or how to get the other team out. At our last game, we held a very good team to two points in the first inning (a significant accomplishment for our team). Everyone plays both infield and outfield. Everyone has improved. Our defensive play as a tea

Because our deployment strategy has focused on developing bottom-up support for Continuous Process Improvement, we have been very deliberate about making gradual training investments. Initially, we focused on yellow belt and champion training with the role of "belt" for improvement projects supported from CPI program resources. As our trained population of yellow belts and champions grew, we began training green belts and broadening the base of belt leadership for projects. After three years of building, we felt it was finally time to invest in black belt training to expand the leadership team for the CPI program. This photo represents the first group to complete the 160 hour black belt training curriculum using our own instructors.