Business Lessons from the Athletic Field v.3
The Myth of the System, Courtesy of the New England Patriots
The New England Patriots are off to yet another great start to their football season. This year, more than any other in recent memory, there was a lot of reason to believe that wouldn’t be possible. The Patriots are without their “star” quarterback, Tom Brady, for the first four weeks of the season. This would have been bad enough, but they also started without Rob Gronkowski who was out with an injury in weeks 1 and 2. No team is happy to lose its best two offensive players… fewer still manage to win.
But the drama of this season for Patriots and football fans in general didn’t stop there. In week two, New England’s back-up quarterback and newly minted QB/Rockstar got injured as well. And yet, amazingly, they didn’t miss a beat. In week three they still won handily. Gronk was back, by the way, but failed to catch any passes… didn’t matter.
Many have forgotten Drew Bledsoe. Many more have forgotten Matt Cassel — is that guy still playing? Yes — he is a back-up in Tennessee. Both men had a good deal of success playing QB for Bill Belichick as well. Unfortunately, their careers took a very poor turn once they left New England. This has many concluding that it is all about the system.
The Myth Of The System
Take it from this Philly fan, systems are overrated. At least they can be. Andy Reid had a system — it is in Kansas City now. Chip Kelly brought a system — that went to San Francisco. Many a coach on many a team has had a system, but few have had the success of the New England Patriots. As I stated in the last addition of this series, teams are built by individual excellence not systems. To understand the brilliance of Belichick, let’s turn to the business world.
“A man should never be appointed to a managerial position if his vision focuses on people’s weaknesses rather than on their strengths. The man who always knows what people cannot do, but never sees what they can do, will undermine the spirit of the organisation. Of course, a manager should have a clear grasp of the limitations of his people, but he should see these as limitations on what they can do, and as a challenge to them to do better.” — Peter Drucker
Managing To Strengths
Peter Drucker was a legend in management consulting. Unlike Bill Belichick, he did not keep his management advise quite so close to the vest. Drucker believed that all managers should do their best to leverage and build on the strengths of their teams. He wrote numerous books on the subject and made a career of instructing the managerial ranks of some of the top corporations in the world. Belichick has been more concerned with World Championships, so he keeps his advise a bit more guarded.
You definitely go through a stage, most coaches do, where you see a good player and you get enamored, you really like what the player does, but then when you put him into your system, it’s not quite the same player that he was in another system. He has some strengths, but you cant utilize all those strengths. If you try to utilize all his strengths, you end up weakening a lot of other players who are already in your system. — Bill Belichick
The coach gives some lip service to “the system”, but his ideas prove to be very similar to those of Drucker. Identify strength and then leverage them to strengthen your team, always being mindful of the team outcome and chemistry. That really isn’t a system so much as a process. The system for Belichick is more of an organically developed strategy that arises from the strengths he finds and his success at integrating them. Drucker summarized it this way:
The task of an executive is not to change human beings. Rather as the Bible tells us in the parable of the talents, the task is to multiply the performance capacity of the whole by putting to use whatever strength, whatever health, whatever aspiration there is in individuals. — Peter Drucker
Collecting Feedback and Avoiding Complexity
As with any process, two things become critical. The coach or manager needs to collect feedback, a crucial component of any adaptive approach. They also have to avoid over complicating the final system. Doing too much will create other weaknesses as Belichick alluded to in his earlier quote. The two men sum things up this way:
Use feedback analysis to identify your strengths. Then go to work on improving your strengths. Identify and eliminate bad habits that hinder the full development of your strengths. Figure out what you should do and do it. Finally, decide what you should not do. — Peter Drucker
Whatever success I’ve had it is because I’ve tried to understand the situation of the player. I think the coach’s duty is to avoid complicating matters. — Bill Belichick
What can a business learn from this?
Focus your business on identifying strength. Empower your managers to leverage those strengths and adapt their organizations. Don’t embrace a system just for the sake of having one. Allow your system to grow from the strengths of your team and be sure that process adapts as your personnel change. But also, think objectively about your supposed top talent . Great employees make great companies, but any one employee should not make or break your team.
Finally, remember that not everyone is going to be a fit. Some talented people will not sync with the skills of the rest of your team. Attempting to get the most from them will complicate your strategy and weaken your enterprise. It is unfortunate, but those employees can always try their hand at baseball.
For more Lessons from the Athletic Field consider:
