The stunning, come-from-behind victory of the Chicago Cubs in the 2016 World Series made me wonder if there might be some business lessons to be learned there. Sure, it’s a sports franchise, but major league baseball teams are businesses too. Yet we tend to experience them as entertainment, not as business models to be studied. So let’s take a look, not as baseball fans, but as business people trying to see what we can learn from this epic achievement. Interested in learning what the Cubs might have to teach us? Please continue reading below.
What kind of clubhouse are you running?
Professional baseball teams typically refer to themselves as a “ball club” and their locker room is their “clubhouse.” However, you hear the ball players refer to their “clubhouse” in ways that defy a physical location alone. For instance, you may hear them say their clubhouse “has a winning attitude.” Last time I checked, bricks and mortar don’t have an attitude about anything. Or when they say they have a “very close” clubhouse, I don’t think they mean their clubhouse is small or nearby. I would argue that while “clubhouse” does refer to a physical place, when players assign human attributes to it, it’s also a metaphor for the team’s culture.
It has taken GM Theo Epstein (with recent help from field boss Joe Maddon) five years to convert the Cubs’ clubhouse from perennial “lovable losers” to world champions. Changing an organization’s culture is tough, and it takes time, but ultimately, the payoff can be huge, as it has been for the Cubs. There’s no question, the Cubs have managed to assemble some real talent, but even extraordinary talent cannot perform to its potential without the support of the team’s culture. So let’s look at some of the cultural hallmarks of the 2016 Cubs. Of course, I don’t have any internal documents from the Cubs that define their culture in black and white, but I think we can draw some educated conclusions just by paying attention to what they do. As Yogi Berra once reminded us, “You can observe a lot by just watching.”
Here are the lessons I believe we can learn from the way Epstein and Maddon have shaped their clubhouse.
1) It’s apparent that the 2016 Cubs not only trust and respect one another, they genuinely like one another. They enjoy being together and working together. That can be a rare thing among rich, prima donna athletes. Epstein and Maddon have apparently done a good job at being faithful gatekeepers and keeping toxic influences out of the clubhouse.
2) They are committed to winning. They don’t play a cautious game aimed at not losing, and they don’t just hope to win . . . when they set foot on the field, they expect to win. And even when they fail to win, they don’t let that shake their expectations for the next game. Even though they were behind 3 games to 1 in the World Series, they still expected to win . . . and did.
3) They are very unselfish players. They put the performance of the team above their own personal performance. If they have to take a new spot in the batting order or play a different position than the one they usually play, so be it if it gives the team a better chance to win.
4) They spread the glory around as much as possible. When a player is having a particularly good game, he will often point out the stellar performance of others and acknowledge that he can’t play at the top of his game unless everyone else is doing likewise.
5) They are proud of the organization they work for and believe they are part of something bigger than themselves . . . something that can help them achieve things that would have been impossible to achieve individually . . . significant things, things that matter.
So what kind of clubhouse are you running? Do your “players” trust and respect one another, and do they enjoy working together as a cohesive unit? Have you done a good job of keeping talented misfits out of your clubhouse? Do your players play to win, or do they simply play not to lose? Are they willing to make sacrifices for the greater good of the company? Do your star players recognize the support they get from everyone else? As coaching great John Wooden once said, “The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.”
And do your players believe what you do, how you do it, and/or who you do it for is important? More to the point, do they believe their role is important in what you do? Do they believe their role matters to the final outcome?
Some of you are going to say, “C’mon, the Cubs play on a big stage with a national following. How can a small, privately held company do what they do?” And you’re right. For most small businesses, gaining national acclaim is probably not a realistic goal. But that doesn’t mean you can’t build a winning team the way the Cubs have. You just have to do it on a smaller scale. Be the employer of choice, the best place to work in your community. Find the niche in your industry where you can really shine. Be the outfit in your trade association that shows everyone else how it’s done.
You may not be able to play in Wrigley Field, but if you want to run a Cubs-like clubhouse, you can build a world-class team on the field of your choosing.
Rock Solid Business Development
Phone: (847) 665-9134
andy@rocksolidbizdevelopment.com
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