The reason for this writing is to explain why businesses should act like sports teams. Sports have created a great system of rules and procedures they use to win games and eventually championships. I will write about those systems and how businesses can borrow these concepts from sports and use them to grow and excel.
Roles
On a sports team, roles are clearly defined. Each player, coach, administrator has specific jobs written out in their contracts. Businesses attempt to do this with titles. But they tend to be a bit muddier. Roles are not clearly defined and cross-over happens. In this cross-over, people lose the ability to know what they are responsible for. This leads to frustration and miscommunication.
So let’s take contracts and role definitions from sports teams. Make responsibilities crystal clear and write them out in a contract. Make sure everyone understands their roles and what they are required to do to contribute to the team.
Team
Treat a business like a team. In fact, don’t call it a company or a business, call it a team. A team sounds more unified and more cooperative. Sports teams know how to win.
The whole reason the sports team exists is to win. So everyone on the team has a deep understanding of the game and the other players. The team knows how to earn points (aka money for business). And everyone knows what winning looks like.
In business, everyone must have a deep understanding of what the outcomes for the business are. It would be a broken team if members were playing a different sport. Imagine the center of a basketball team all of a sudden decides to punt the basketball. On a business team, everyone must know what “sport” they are playing, what their positions are, how to score, and how to win.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
If you want to take a deep dive into what it takes to have a world class team, read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. He helped my understand what it takes for teams to succeed.
Scoreboard
Scoreboards are yet another thing businesses can borrow from the sports world. I got the idea of a scoreboard for businesses from the book The 4 Disciplines of Execution. Imagine watching a game and you have no idea who’s winning. Or how much time is left in the game. Or how many timeouts are left. These are basic metrics of a scoreboard. They are used to make the game more fun and engaging. For a business team, a scoreboard will act in the same way. It tells the team if they are winning or losing, how many points (money) they have, and how much time is left in the quarter. Businesses currently have scoreboards in the form of reports. The profit and loss statement is one example. But it is a poor excuse for a scoreboard. It’s poor because it’s too complicated. Scoreboards need to be easy to read. A quick glance should tell the individual all the information they need to know.
Competition
Sports is a zero sum game. Meaning one side has to lose for the other side to win. This is not the case with business. One business doesn’t have to lose in order for another business to win. Both can win. The only reason to keep an eye on competition is to make sure to do things differently. But you don’t even need to do that. Just do it your way. If you do it your way, your level of happiness will go up and it’s guaranteed that you will be different from your competition. And the public wants something different. When two businesses are the same, people can’t tell the difference, and the products are commoditized. Then it comes down to factors such as price, convenience, cleanliness of the store, etc.
Coach
Just like a head coach in sports, there is a leader of a business team. This person is out front, looking at all the complex components that make up the team while navigating the business landscape, directing the team as they move forward. The leader is the final decision maker. The leader is asking questions. The leader doesn’t (can’t) have all the answers and relies on the team to fill in the gaps of misunderstanding. But when it is time to make a final decision, everyone looks to the leader. If it was a bad decision, it falls on the shoulders of the leader. If it was a good decision, the team gets praised.
It’s difficult for me to say what makes a great leader. Leaders are able to see things other people do not. Experience matters in this role. Leaders are not taught in school but practiced on the field. But more importantly, the leader has the ability to look at the world objectively. Without any biases that would cloud judgment. And the leader understands they can’t know everything, and when necessary, ask other members of the team for guidance and advice.
People
At the end of the day it’s about the people on the team. People with the willingness to be wrong and a burning desire to learn, improve, and win. Having the right people is critical to the success of any team. In business and in sports. In business, diversity is the name of the game. Have a wide range of skills and personalities. A diverse mixture of women and men with different types of experience and educational backgrounds. Ideally, a mixture of ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. After the team is formed, each person can be given the roles that are suited for them and that they feel passionate about doing.
Wrapping it up
You can see from these ideas how we can use strategies, systems and concepts used on sports teams and apply them to business. Sports have a well defined system with rules that help them win and make it enjoyable for people to watch.
Let’s take a play book from sports and use the same concepts as they use to turn our businesses from a company into a team.
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