Acknowledging the Competition

This past couple of weeks the sports world has been chock-full of big time, high stakes contests ranging from the recent Super Bowl to what was in my little sports bubble, an incredibly entertaining and interesting NBA game last Friday night between the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Knicks.

While in different sports, and certainly having wildly different levels of significance, these contests possessed some interesting back stories, both around how teams and players perceive and communicate about their competition. 

Two data points to submit -

Point One - shortly after the New York Giants victory in the Super Bowl, a full-page congratulatory advertisement in the New York Daily News was taken out in acknowledgement of the Giants fantastic victory, and commending the Giants organization for the 'passion' and 'toughness' they exhibited in winning the championship.

The organization that placed the ad? Not the New England Patriots, the team that the Giants actually defeated in the Super Bowl, but the New York Jets. The Jets, as the 'other' professional football team in the greater New York City area have had a long history of futility, and after some recent better play in the last few seasons, saw themselves as a serious title contender. Sadly for the Jets, their season ended in disappointing fashion, failing to even qualify for the league playoffs, in no small part to a loss to the eventual Super Bowl Champion Giants in a late-season game.

Point Two - Shortly before last Friday's Lakers-Knicks game at Madison Square Garden in New York, reporters asked Lakers' star Kobe Bryant, an all-time great player, and 5-time NBA title winner what he thought about the recent and surprising play of the Knicks young point guard Jeremy Lin.  Remember, Kobe is a pantheon-type player, one of the greatest ever, and Lin, while a sensation at the moment, has played only a handful of games of note in the NBA.

From the transcript of the exchange between Kobe and the press:

"I know who he (Lin) is, but I don't really know what's going on too much with him. I don't even know what he's done. Like, I have no idea what you guys are talking about. I'll take a look at it tonight though."

[Asked again about Lin] "I don't even know what the [fudge] is going on. What the [fudge] is going on? Who is this kid? I've heard about him and stuff like that, but what's he been doing? Is he getting like triple doubles or some [stuff]? He's averaging 28 and eight? No [stuff]. If he's playing well, I'll just have to deal with him."

[Would he consider guarding Lin?] "Jesus Christ. Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

It's hard to say how much Kobe really knew about the Knicks' Lin, and how much of his remarks were meant to make sure that the rest of the league, the reporters, and the fans know that he remains one of the top players in the league, on what is still a good team, and what the [fudge] are you guys doing asking me about some rookie no one's ever heard of before three days ago.

The difference in the two approaches? 

The Jets are the second-class citizens in the New York football scene. And their local rivals the Giants have just won their second Super Bowl in 4 years, (and 4th overall). The Jets have been looking up at the Giants for the better part of their history.  Kobe, on the other hand, has been one of the very best players in the NBA for over a decade, winning 5 titles in the process, and Lin, well despite this past week of excitement, has achieved about 1/1,000,000th of what Kobe has done in his career.

For the Jets management, taking out the ad congratulating the Giants sends a pretty strong message to the players, coaches, and fans that their job is not nearly done, and to see what success looks like well, they don't have to look far.  It is about making sure the Jets understand that and hopefully to keep them motivated to do something about that.

And for Kobe, the best player on the Lakers and the team leader? His comments are clearly meant to make sure his teammates realize that they are still the Lakers, and he is still Kobe Bryant, and that they, and the rest of the league should not forget that.  A leader on a traditionally great team probably has to take that tack, and to keep up the team's swagger and confidence. 

What do you think - does your position on the pecking order influence and factor in to what you say about your competition? 

Does what you say about the competition have any effect on the morale of your staff?

Postscript - The Knicks, led by Jeremy Lin's 38 points did beat the Lakers last Friday. Kobe played pretty well (34 points 10 boards), but the Knicks had too much #LinSanity going for them.

Staying classy on the way out

So we are all coming down from the excitement, drama, and spectacular display of talent from the Super Bowl, (actually I am sort of guessing about all that, as this post is being written about 8 hours before the actual kickoff), and for the last day or so talk about the game, the commercials, the half time show (how was it?), has dominated online and offline discourse. Tiquan Underwood - Source AP

In all the excitement over the build-up, the game itself, and all the hype surrounding the event, you may have missed or forgotten about one piece of game-related news that broke late on Saturday night, less than 24 hours before the latest Game of the Century. The New England Patriots made a final roster move, releasing backup Wide Receiver Tiquan Underwood, and activating from the practice (reserve) squad, Defensive End Alex Silvestro. Since this move did not involve any well-known players, or figure to have a meaningful impact on the game, it was not really big news. But to Underwood and Silvestro, the move has enormous significance, one player losing the chance to play in the biggest game of his life, (even as only a little-used reserve), and the other given the chance to suit up, run through the tunnel, and take a small part on the stage of the biggest sporting event of the year.

The Patriots made it clear that the decision to release Underwood was 100% football-related, as in the past some players have run afoul of team rules and curfews on the night before the big game. No, the team executives and coaches simply felt having another defensive line player on the active roster for the game was more important than one extra wide receiver. 

But the real story in this to me is how Underwood, at least publicly, reacted to what must have been the incredible disappointment after he learned his Super Bowl dreams were done. According to the ESPN.com report of the transaction, Underwood, after learning the news tweeted - 

"Good Luck To The New England Organization, The Coaches, & All My Teammates. #PatsNation."

And in a text message to ESPN reporter Ed Werder, Underwood said:

"I don't want to be a distraction to the game or the New England Patriots.....i will say this, The New England Patriots are a GREAT Organization. I wish them nothing but the best today. This season has been dedicated to Myra Kraft (MHK) Mr Kraft's wife....w/ that being said i hope they pull out the victory in honor of her & because the coaches & players have worked so hard this season for the opportunity to play in Super Bowl 46. Go Pats!!!! #PatsNation"

That is remarkably classy and mature coming from a guy just a few hours from running out on the field for the Super Bowl, the pinnacle event for his profession, and if he is like most other professional players, the culmination of a life long dream. Underwood may or may not have another chance to get into a Super Bowl, as it stands he is on the edge of even being an active player in the league, but I suspect the classy and professional way he handled this disappointment will help him immeasurably in the rest of his career.

A team guy, a 'don't make this about me guy', a reminder to keep focused on the overall goals and mission of the team - that is the kind of guy you want on your team, no matter what your sport or business might be.

Sure, the Patriots might have just shut the door on one of Underwood's dreams, but his actions and comments on the way out might have just opened up some new doors as well.

Motivating the Team: When Metaphors Aren't Enough

Sports coaches are famous, perhaps notorious for breaking out the same kinds of tired, hackneyed, and over used motivational tactics and speeches to try and inspire confidence, encourage effort, and bind their team's together in a 'We are all in this together' or an 'It's us against the world' mindset.

Ever since the 'Win one for the Gipper' locker room speech achieved widespread notoriety in the classic movie 'Knute Rockne - All American', coaches of all sports and levels have continued to conjure slogans, phrases, sometimes even symbols, (make sure you touch the 'lucky poster' as you exit the locker room), to try and rev up the team prior to games, and other times, to continue to instill a philosophy, work ethic, or personality on the team that will serve as a season-long rallying cry.

One quote and it's corresponding message of 'stick to the task, even if we don't see immediate progress, eventually it will work out', is this one, from social reformer Jacob Riis:

Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.

This motivational quote, and variations of it, has been adopted by numerous sports teams over the years, most famously the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, as a means to achieve commitment and buy-in to the 'system', to tenacity, and to belief in a common cause as a means to eventually achieve success. Keep 'pounding the the rock' so to speak, and in time, we will become champs.

One new coach in the NBA, the Toronto Raptors' Dwane Casey, a believer in the 'pounding the rock' approach, has taken things one step further. In addition to preaching the Jacob Riis mantra to the players, he has actually had a 1,300-pound boulder placed in the team's locker room, a gigantic and visual reminder to the team of the philosophy and work ethic he is seeking to inspire.

From the Yahoo! Sports piece:

The boulder, purchased at a quarry in Thornhill, Ontario, just north of Toronto, is there to remind the players every time they walk on the court. They’re supposed to touch it as they pass by and will leave every huddle with a call to “Pound the Rock!” 

I get the idea of placing an actual rock that all the players have to see and at least tacitly acknowledge each day. After all, talk is cheap and day after day of any coach or leader espousing a rallying cry is eventually going to begin to lose impact on the team, and get tuned out by the players it seeks to motivate. But I wonder if these kinds of motivational tactics, (placing a boulder in the locker room, putting up posters everywhere with the tam slogan), are any more effective.

And in one well-reported case from a few years back, one NFL team had it's 'Keep Chopping Wood' motivational display backfire on them.

Do these props, posters, and motivational displays have any more effectiveness that simply the words and actions of a good leader? Does your organization have any of these kinds of props?

I know someone out there has a Successories poster in their office!

Have a Great Weekend!

Repetition, Creativity, and Short Memories

A series of pretty long flights and flight delays the last few months not only provided some decent blog material for my 'Notes From the Road' series, but also furnished the opportunity to finally read the almost 800-page unofficial oral history of ESPN called 'Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN', by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales.

The book's format, and it is definitely not for everyone, has almost no author penned narrative or exposition. Rather the story of ESPN unfolds in a long series of snippets from interviews that the authors conducted with more than 500 people that built, led, worked at, or observed ESPN since its humble beginnings in 1979 to its self-proclaimed position today as the 'Worldwide Leader in Sports.' The tale of ESPN, with plenty of drama, corporate infighting, scandal, really questionable to downright bad behavior, innovative and groundbreaking ideas, and finally to its position today as probably the most powerful single entity in sports, (and the main reason your cable TV bill is so high), is really targeted at the sports junkies among us.  So while I enjoyed the book, I can't really recommend it to anyone other than the sports-obsessed.

But in the 800 pages worth of observations and comments from (mostly), really successful and accomplished executives, broadcasters, and marketers there are quite a number of interesting and kind of instructive pieces of advice that have application in areas beyond sports the presentation of sports on TV. Again, while there are several of these in the book - I will just highlight one, an examination and recommendation on staying fresh, even when the work seems repetitive, and how to continue to bring new ideas to the table when it can be easy to keep trotting out the 'this is the way we've always done it' card.

Here it is, some advice from ESPN Executive Producer Bill Fitts to the line Producers as to what they should do with their written post-mortem show reports after an event had been broadcasted:

"When you guys finish your shows, take that file and throw it out. Do not keep one piece of paper, because next year when we have to come back and do this again, it will force you to rethink everything you did, not just pick up from where you left off and implement the same procedures and production elements that you did last year."

Money. The challenge in a creative field like broadcasting is to continue to push, to keep new ideas flowing, to devise and deliver new ways for the audience to experience the events so that with each viewing, even if if was the 3,459rd basketball game they had seen, maybe something about the show would be new, fresh, innovative. And you can really only make that happen, at least consistently, by letting go of the past, your assumptions, your pre-conceived constraints, and look at the challenge like it was brand new, and anything is possible.

And its good advice for us in the workplace as well. Whether it is annual benefits open enrollment, a new training and development program we are pushing, or a new system we are building - how might the way we deliver be different, (and hopefully better), if we could really let go of the past and start brand new.

Labor Negotiations, Point Guards, and Genius Economists

So I am starting to get a little obsessed with the ongoing progress, or lack thereof, in the National Basketball Association's labor dispute between the owners, (billionaires that mostly didn't get to be billionaires by accident), and the players, (millionaires that also mainly did not get there by accident, unless you consider being 'tall' an accident).Who's that guy? That's not Metta WP.

For months the negotiations have dragged on, and last week the league announced the postponement of the start of team training camps and the cancellation of several early pre-season games. These developments, while not totally unexpected, act to raise the pressure on both sides to reach a settlement quickly, as the start of the NBA regular season, (and the point where players and owners actually start to feel the economic impact of the labor problems), is clearly in jeopardy of being postponed as well. Soon, each week the league and its players fail to come to an agreement means a week of games that will not be played, effecting players, team staffs, arena workers, media and broadcast partners, and all the extended ecosystem of stakeholders in the league. Not to mention me, and how I'll need to find a way to kill every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday night from November until June.

From the ESPN.com piece linked above, here's a short recap of the last set of negotiations between the league officials, and representatives for the player's union: (I've added some descriptors in parentheses for clarity).

(NBA Commissioner David) Stern celebrated his 69th birthday Thursday but didn't appear in a festive mood after meeting for about five hours with leaders from the union. He was joined by Silver, the deputy commissioner, Spurs owner Peter Holt, who heads the labor relations committee, and NBA senior vice president and deputy general counsel Dan Rube. (Los Angeles Lakers Point Guard Derek) Fisher, (Union chief Billy)Hunter, attorney Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy represented the union.

 A description of a classic 'Management v. Union' negotiating meeting, right? High-ranking officials from the league, the Union Chief, the player's rep (Fisher), and of course a couple of lawyers and even an economist tossed in for good measure by the player's side. 

Typical unless you take a closer look at the one, 'sort of out of place but not really because I've never heard of him' Economist, Kevin Murphy.

Because Mr. Murphy is not just an ordinary economist - in fact he might be one of the smartest and most influential economists out there. From Mr. Murphy's Wikipedia page:

In 1997 Murphy was awarded the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal by the American Economic Association, given once every two years to the most outstanding American economist under the age of forty, and widely considered to be the second most prestigious prize in economics (after the Nobel Prize in Economics). Murphy was cited for his study of the causes of growing income inequality between white-collar and blue-collar workers in the United States and his research linking the growth in income inequality to growth in the demand for skilled labor. His other research has covered such topics as economic growth, income inequality, valuing medical research, rational addiction, and unemployment.

On September 20, 2005, he was named as one of the 2005 recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship, often referred to as the "genius grant."

So I can imagine the mindset of Commissioner Stern, (no dummy certainly), and the league owners in all this. They have (collectively), more money, more power, more control, and probably think more negotiating leverage in this situation. They usually sit across the table from union officials and player representatives and have to think - 'We're smarter than them.'. It would not be an irrational conclusion. 

But all of a sudden the meeting starts, and in walks the economic genius, Mr. Murphy along with the Union Chief and the Lakers point guard, and I wonder if Stern and the owners did a double take. Did they know who Mr. Murphy is? Did they have any idea about his history and reputation? Did they know they were sitting across a 'not quite but probably pretty soon Nobel prize candidate'?

You want to win your Beer League Friday night softball game? Easy. Bring in a ringer from the local college baseball team and claim he's the new guy in Accounting. 

Want to get an edge at the negotiating table? Drop a 'genius' economist next to your starting point guard.

Eventually a deal will be reached, and the games will be scheduled, and it is hard to know which side will 'win', but for me I'll give the players the halftime lead for their creative approach to stacking their team.