Moneyball and Leading Organizational Change (#60)

The 2020 Major League Baseball playoffs are in full swing. The league played a shortened, 60 game season to empty stadiums with only a hiccup or two caused by the coronavirus. With a compressed playoff schedule at neutral sites to better establish and maintain a bubble, baseball fans will know the World Series champion by Halloween.

Even without the pandemic, baseball in 2020 looks significantly different than baseball in 1995. Today, teams hit more homeruns, don’t steal bases as much, and use the defensive shift extensively. One catalyst of baseball’s significant change over the last quarter century was Billy Beane, a former professional baseball player and the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics from 1997 to 2015. The Athletics, with a small budget, struggled to acquire the talent needed to compete with the big budget teams like the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox in the American League. Through the use of extensive statistical analysis of players, Beane was able to find undervalued talent, mainly by focusing on their on-base percentage, to field a very competitive team. The 2003 book by Michael Lewis and the 2011 movie Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, is a case study in organizational change. Thanks to Beane and the Athletics, using statistical analysis to inform decisions has permeated baseball in 2020.

Four takeaways from Moneyball:

• If you are doing real organizational change, no one will like it. With the Athletics, the scouts didn’t like it because using data eliminated some of their worth. When the new players and philosophy didn’t win at first, the fans hated it. The manager opposed the new approach, since he thought he wouldn’t be able to find a job the next year with another team. With real organizational change, prepare to deal with overwhelming resistance to change from all sides.

• Reframe the problem: The whole point of reframing is not to find the correct problem but, instead, to examine if there is a better issue to solve. Problems are typically multifaceted and can be tackled in many ways; there is rarely one way to solve a problem. I talked about reframing back in Post #26 — https://www.thefivecoatconsultinggroup.com/the-coronavirus-crisis/reframe-the-question . There is a great exchange between Billy Beane and his scouts where he talks through his reframing of the problem:

 Billy Beane: Guys, you're just talking. Talking, "la-la-la-la", like this is business as usual. It's not.

Scout Grady: We're trying to solve the problem here, Billy.

Billy: Not like this you're not. You're not even looking at the problem.

Scout Grady: We're very aware of the problem. I mean...

Billy: Okay, good. What's the problem?

Scout Grady: Look, Billy, we all understand what the problem is. We have to...

Billy: Okay, good. What's the problem?

Scout Grady: The problem is we have to replace three key players in our lineup.

Billy: Nope. What's the problem?

Scout Pittaro: Same as it's ever been. We've gotta replace these guys with what we have existing.

Billy: Nope. What's the problem, Barry?

Scout Barry: We need 38 home runs, 120 RBIs and 47 doubles to replace.

Billy: Ehh!

Billy: The problem we're trying to solve is that there are rich teams and there are poor teams. Then there's fifty feet of crap, and then there's us. It's an unfair game. And now we've been gutted. We're like organ donors for the rich. Boston's taken our kidneys, Yankees have taken our heart. And you guys just sit around talking the same old "good body" nonsense like we're selling jeans. Like we're looking for Fabio. We've got to think differently. We are the last dog at the bowl. You see what happens to the runt of the litter? He dies.

• Cultivate organizational change allies. David Justice was a 37-year-old player who was on his way out of baseball. Billy Beane explained the reality of his situation frankly to him and then asks him to take on the role as an influencer, or the leader of the change in the clubhouse. There are similar opportunities in your organization to find champions for your change who are leaders amongst their peers. Who within your organization can be that influencer?  Who can you tap to help spread the message throughout the organization? Don’t ignore those that have been around awhile and have a significant, but subtle influence in the group.

• Communicate, Communicate, Communicate: However, Beane doesn’t do a great job of communicating change to the organization. Instead he removes obstacles to his vision by trading Jeremy Giambi, trading Carlos Pena, and firing Scout Grady Fuson (in real life, Fuson left for a better opportunity with the Texas Rangers). Leading organizational change might have gone easier for Beane if he had continued to over communicate at all levels. Communicating over and over again (when you are sick of hearing yourself say it, you are getting close) the plan and rationale for how the Athletics were going to play baseball in 2002 might have decreased some of the resistance to change.

There are four great takeaways (and many more) from Moneyball that can be applied the next time you are leading organizational change. Channel your inner Brad Pitt/Billy Beane and remember that no one will like it, reframe the problem, cultivate allies, and over communicate the plan and the rationale at multiple levels. And then, maybe your organizational change, like Billy Beane and the Athletics, will change how all your competitors act as well.