Moneyball and Organizational Excellence
Image Courtesy Apple+ TV and Columbia Pictures
From time to time, I tend to watch movies over again that I like. Films that fall into this category are usually somehow tied to a true story.
The other day I was watching Moneyball (for the umpteenth time) and realized there are a number of behaviors I observed, that related to organizational excellence.
Now please understand that I am aware that the culture in baseball is atypical to most organizations, as it should be. Nearly everyone working for a major league ball club is a subcontractor, and that drives the culture that you see in the film.
I would also like to say I don’t follow baseball as a fan and my understanding of the game is rudimentary at best, and perhaps woeful. However, I do love sports metaphors for overcoming barriers to excellence.
What I am talking about here are things I observed necessary to make a change within the Oakland Athletics’ organization and the broader culture of major league baseball itself. There were 15 different behaviors I noted, that can directly be applied to driving organizational excellence.
If you haven’t already, here are some things for you to consider from the film, as it relates to change within an organization.
1. Work within the constraints we have and do the best we can
This can produce innovation or a search to find a new or different way to achieve results, as was the case in the film.
2. Direct and honest communication
This is sometimes painful, but necessary, no beating around the bush. As a matter of fact, being direct is more respectful than placing the communication recipient in a position where they must try and interpret what the message is.
3. Challenge the Conventional Wisdom
Conventional wisdom is most often the product of groupthink, as was demonstrated by the scouting organization and sports radio pundits.
4. What’s the real problem?
Dig down to find the ugly and embrace it, (Mike Simons, COO, Bullfrog Spas). You need to know what the hard reality is if you want to move from good to great, (Jim Collins, Good to Great).
5. Be willing to ask the right question
These are typically “hard” questions and related to understanding the real problem. Someone has to be willing to challenge ask “why” enough times to get to the ugly.
6. Be open to new ways of thinking
We cannot change if we are not open to change. Learning itself is an act of humility.
7. Measure what matters
What are the leading indicators? If possible are they behaviors we can measure and improve?
8. Embrace scientific thinking
29 years of experience and intuition is not going to change things in baseball. I love how Brad Pitt’s character, Billy Beane, in a difficult meeting with the scouting team, continually redirected an emotional response to the data, which was expressed by Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill).
9. Level 5 Leadership
Jim Collins calls this, “building enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.”
10. Pivot quickly when required
When Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character, Art Howe, chose not to follow Beane’s strategy – albeit with good intent – Beane changed the team roster so that he would get the behaviors and subsequent results he and Brand were looking for.
11. Align the enterprise
Beane and Brand can be seen in various vignettes, meeting with A’s team members and explaining to them why what they are doing is important and what they expect to get from their focus on the process. Beane actually says in one vignette, “It’s a process.”
12. Focus on process
Understanding a process and focusing on it are two different things. To focus on the process requires professional maturity and discipline. It can be argued that some MLB players struggle with the maturity aspect, but all of them get the discipline aspect.
13. Let the game come to you
By focusing on the process, you gain the confidence that the process, if consistently well executed, will not only eventually produce the results sought after, but will also create conditions for great things to happen, when the timing is appropriate. This was evidenced well into the season of a 20 game winning streak, capped by an unexpected home run by Hatteberg, to close out a tense game in the bottom of the ninth.
14. It has to mean something
Beane had to feel like what he was doing was not just good for the Oakland Athletics, but also for the game itself. He saw the potential for real change in the game, that would level the playing field at the time. This was his north star.
15. Create value
One of the things that really stood out to me is when Beane is talking to John W. Henry, principal owner of the Boston Red Sox. Beane expresses some doubts about his impact on the future of the game and Henry brings things into laser focus with the data. He tells Bean that the season of Moneyball, the Athletics won as many games as the New York Yankees, but the A’s won for $260,000 per game, whereas the Yankees won at $1.4 million per game. Henry then suggested that if every MLB manager were not trying to apply Beane’s methodology to their own ball clubs, they were missing a significant opportunity.
Image Courtesy amazon.com and W.W. Norton & Company
I mentioned that I had purchased the book, Moneyball. What I didn’t mention was there were several books piggybacking off the Moneyball concept. Moneyball for Government, Moneyball for the Money Set, Dental Moneyball, Moneyball Church, Nonprofit Moneyball, etc. I found that curious, and it caused me to want to list all the things above, which are mostly sequential within the film. You can follow this article while watching the film and see for yourself.
My purpose here is not to detail these 15 behaviors. Rather it is to create awareness around them and how they can drive organizational excellence. I’ll dig deeper in future articles, but not back-to-back. They will be peppered among other topics of consideration I see as necessary and important to communicate on.
In the meantime, pop yourself a bag of popcorn, get a bag of Skittles and grab the beverage of your choice, plop down in front of your 70-inch screen and watch Moneyball. If for no other reason, that it is a great film.
I very much appreciate you and the time you have taken to read this article. You can find more articles like this from me at https://www.legup.solutions/blog.
If you have thoughts this or other topics regarding yours or your organization's journey of excellence, feel free to continue the conversation on my Secret Sauce slack feed.
Originally published at https://www.legup.solutions on 05 MAR 2024