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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Is Business Like Baseball?

I've often compared business leadership to coaching baseball. They both have rules, each player has specific skills, everyone has personal goals and team goals. All players know what it takes to win and they all support each other. Plus hopefully they practice regularly. Just for the heck of it, let's compare the way a business operates to the way that you would run a baseball game. I would assume everyone reading this has a fairly good understanding of the rules in baseball. Imagine if the baseball game was similar to some folks who run a business with no goals, no specific rules and no basic plan for success. Let's say we decided to start a game the way this business was run and we had several individuals playing who are totally unfamiliar with the rules of how to play. So I'm at bat with no one on base. I happen to hit a ground ball to the third baseman. He catches it and instead of trying to throw me out at first, he instead throws it to the pitcher. I get to first and I believe I'm safe. One of the people playing who doesn't know the rules wants to argue that I am out because the third baseman did catch the ball. I argue that he has to throw it to first to get me out, and that I only would have been out if he caught it as a fly ball and not a ground ball. A third person wants to argue that I was out because the third baseman threw the ball to the pitcher and the pitcher caught it before I arrived at first base. We all get into an argument and the whole game never continues because there are too many opinions on what the real rules really are. This was just from one base hit, imagine what it would be like when we decide to keep score! I've been to some businesses where it seems like they are playing a game with no defined rules, no goals, no measurement and no one ever knows if they are winning or not. In baseball, everyone understands the rules of play. Every player knows the ultimate goal is to get the most runs to win while also trying to keep the other team from scoring. Each player has a specific role to play in order for that to happen. Everyone also knows how to handle their own role and objectives in most every possible scenario that could occur. Just so there is no misunderstanding, the scenarios are practiced on a regular basis in order to make sure there are minimum errors during actual play. The team that is most successful in accomplishing all of this wins the most games. Why can't you do the same in business? Business leaders need to make sure everyone on the team completely understands the rules of play and what it takes to win. This begins with making sure there are actually rules of play, like an employee handbook, business objectives, workplace guidelines and also an understanding of possible ramifications if the rules are broken. It may seem difficult sometimes to get everyone playing the same game and playing by the same rules, but if you don't start with communicating the fundamentals, you'll never win. Setting individual goals and overall business goals to win is essential also, every person must know how they could affect the outcome. More about this in future newsletters.