Change - People Don’t Fail, Leaders Do, Part IV

Change

People Don’t Fail, Leaders Do, Part IV

Originally published Jan. Feb. 2015 PS Magazine

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." George Bernard Shaw

“People don’t fail, leaders do” has been the rallying cry of my last three editorials. I have been very critical of Mr. Cinquanta’s leadership of the ISU. He continually makes poor decisions without repercussions. While I was writing those editorials, I too was going through a challenging period of leadership. “People don’t fail, leaders do” was never far from my mind. Failure was not an option.

In June of 2013, I received a letter bearing the seal of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which gave notice that the FTC was initiating a non-public investigation in regards to our Code of Ethics rule #3 which stated:  “No member shall in any case solicit pupils of another member, directly or indirectly, or through third parties.” You can imagine what was going on through my mind. Initially I was in denial, followed quickly by anger. We had had this rule for as long as anyone could remember. Interestingly, I experienced the stages of loss and grief throughout this process. After the initial wave of anger passed (it did reappear often!), I went through a period of bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. The fear of totally letting down the membership weighed greatly on my shoulders and kept me focused on not letting that happen. I would expect that many of you experienced the same feelings as you heard the news.

At the conclusion of the first phase of the non-public investigation, the PSA staff had produced over 63,000 pages of requested documentation. The FTC’s response to the 63,000 pages of documents came shortly thereafter and did nothing to sway their view. The PSA’s legal representation reviewed our options, and determined the law in this area is unsettled.  PSA’s cost of defending itself against the FTC’s allegations would likely exceed PSA’s financial resources, with no certainty of ultimate success.        

Once the PSA understood that we would not win against the government, I started looking for the lessons to be learned. As George Bernard Shaw said, if we can’t change our minds, how can we change anything?

The FTC alleged that the old Code of Ethics rule #3 violated the Federal Trade Commission Act because it inhibits economic competition among coaches. From their perspective, it was an unethical practice. As an association, how do we overcome that stigma? How could we encourage our members not to be unethical, when we were being accused of being unethical? Simply, we had to find the high road and take it. The PSA must do our best to create the most fair and level playing field. As written on the PSA paper on ethical solicitation, “The goal of the new rules is to increase competition between coaches, reduce fees for skaters, improve the quality of services, and to encourage innovation.”

To accomplish those goals, the PSA must work hard to provide education in the area of marketing. PSA must lead in the exploration of new sport science and innovative technique. More importantly, we need to help those who want to be helped. Individually, each coach should fight to be smarter than the next.

Throughout this whole process, the FTC never understood that figure skaters are a different breed. We fail everyday…we fall down every day…and we keep getting up. The PSA and our members will do what we always do; take a bad performance, evaluate, and learn from it. We will be stronger and better for it.