Is there a chance that something you KNOW to be true about your business and industry…isn’t true?

If you saw the movie, “Moneyball,” or read the book, “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” by Michael Lewis, you know where I’m going with this.

In that case, you also know that Oakland A’s baseball general manager (GM) Billy Beane and a few data-savvy staff members changed the way that baseball teams are built.

Driven by a far lower budget than other teams had, Beane sought a better way to create and manage a winning team.

He succeeded by diving into once-obscure player statistics to create a surprising, and surprisingly successful team.

Beane studied and acted on such things as on-base percentage, a statistic that other teams often quickly skimmed as they selected players and managed them using historical – yet incorrect – models of what led to baseball success.

“Moneyball” might have lessons for your company, too.

Consider these aspects of the basic story:

Beane understood that the way potential players were assessed and selected was wrong. He knew this in spite of the industry-standard, industry-expected, industry-accepted way of doing things.

How was he so certain of that?

He knew it because he had been one of the golden prospects about whom the scouts were off-base as they assessed his past performance and future potential.

The real problem for Billy Beane was that he wasn’t fearless in the batter’s box and didn’t have the deep drive to succeed as a professional athlete that the game requires…no matter how physically talented that athlete is.

When he was building a baseball team as a GM, he was in his element.

Beane had to change the game of building a team because of financial constraints he had that competing teams didn’t.

He and the data-loving members of his staff (and others, I suspect) thrived on the challenge and the results that the record-breaking team produced under this strategy.

As the A’s won against much wealthier teams, those teams started to look closely at what Oakland was doing to produce results that were clearly more than just a fluke.

How could your business benefit from a moneyball approach to seeing and managing the details that lead most directly to the success you seek…no matter what your industry’s accepted approach may be?

Try these things:

1. Know what your key assumptions are about what leads to success for your company and in your industry.

2. Question your key assumptions.

3. Question them again.

4. Consider what might be true, instead, if something else is.

5. Create and conduct experiments of what might work better than what you’ve been doing up to this point.

6. Observe what happens.

7. Adjust your success-production process, as need be.

8. Repeat the cycle until you’re able to more easily produce the desired outcomes.

9. Enjoy and celebrate the improved results.

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It’s harvest season.

That’s true for people who make their living from the land.

And it’s harvest season for you, too, no matter what business you’re in.

These six weeks from mid-September through the end of October can be golden, and one of the highest productivity times of the year.

That’s because, among other things:

- The pressure’s on if you have annual goals that you still need to meet (and most of us do).

- There’s still time to adjust to the lessons you’ve learned this year, for better or worse.

- It’s a perfect time to work ahead and prepare for a better year ahead.

- The clock is ticking to get things done before attention and energy are diverted by end-of-year holidays.

Here are just a few ways you use the golden days of September and October to bring this business year to a good close:

1. Do a business tune-up

Check the effectiveness and ease of use of your key business processes.

2. Problem-find

Ask people in the company to provide feedback, anonymous or otherwise, about what problems they see. And prepare to be surprised. There may be some big frustrations and aggravations lurking in your company that you may be completely unaware of now.

3. Cause-find

Identify the root causes of problems you already know you want to, or must solve.

4. Create an action plan

Create an actionable and realistic plan to make changes you haven’t been able to get traction on yet. This may be a clue, too, that the root cause of some problems isn’t what you thought it was.

5. Get rid of low-hanging problems

Take care of some of the aggravating yet relatively easy to solve problems at your company.

6. Do a vision check

Check and/or update the vision that guides your company or team. Start with these questions:
- Is it still accurate?
- Does it address the customers you serve now?
- Is it compelling?

7. Get customer feedback

Update your knowledge about your customers and what they want and need from you. Use surveys, interviews, onsite observations or meetings, or a combination of tools.

8. Innovate

Brainstorm new product and service ideas for your current customers and markets. Or brainstorm new markets you can serve with the products and services you already have.

9. Clean sweep

Simplify, streamline, or do a good fall “housecleaning” of your offices, inbox or email stream.

10. Experiment

Experiment your way to a solution for a problem you haven’t been able to solve yet. Or start learning a new skill you know you will need in the future through a learning experiment.

These ten ideas are just a few ways you can create even greater yield…and enjoy it more…during the golden weeks of September and October.

Put harvest season to work…for you.

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Have you ever felt that the real barrier to your progress is, in fact, you? 

It’s not as unusual as you might think.

Here’s just one story that might illustrate the point.

SITUATION 

A client company was growing rapidly. Their product idea was good, and the market was ready for it.

Opportunity was almost falling at their feet.

The founder and CEO built a team and organized them enough to meet the initial product demand.

Profits started flowing in what seemed as if it would be an endless stream.

The problems of growth, which they never expected they’d face, were easily masked by high profits…for a while.

There came a point, however, when the CEO and company could not make the leap over, around, or through the barriers of growth completely on their own.

Profits could no longer allow them to hide, or buy their way out of all the problems coming their way.

As the quality of the outcome and the customer experience starting to suffer, profits started to drop.

SOME THINGS WORKED VERY WELL

The founder continued to be very committed to the company.

Employees were dedicated, and believed in the technology they were helping to create.

Some customers continued to bring new business to them, despite growing problems of product quality, delivery and cost.

THE COMPANY WAS GETTING IN ITS OWN WAY IN THESE WAYS

The founder was unpredictable in the way he led the company.

Sometimes he delegated freely and confidently, trusting his team to get things done. Sometimes he did a deep dive into the details as he reverted to his extreme micromanagement mode.

And it wasn’t always easy to tell which of these two managers was going to show up on any given day.

The company’s salespeople thought they knew what customers’ needs were after an order was placed, but they often guessed wrong, or assumed some needs away.

Usually the error was not discovered until late in a project, when deadlines were slipping and product quality was at risk.

The company, and company leader, had no clear model of excellence to drive toward or learn from as they tried to change to meet the new production levels and demands.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF PROBLEMS GREW 

The company started to miss client deadlines.

They quit answering the phone when they knew customers weren’t happy.

It was not until the company lost key customers to competitors that the company took the need for change seriously.

That’s when they gave me a call.

HERE’S WHAT WE DID

I worked with them develop a model and a plan to achieve success in light of the increased project volume with which they were struggling.

We created a streamlined and consistent process structure, measures, and communication flows.

This increased their production capacity, and profitability, without inhibiting the personal initiative that had been a source of success and employee satisfaction in the past.

We created a predictable process for getting information at the start of a new project. This brought in better information that was easier to use and follow, and enabled the project team to quickly and confidently get their work started.

We also created a stronger team culture and dynamic.

The CEO started to engage employees more in planning, doing, and improving the company.

He dictated less, and involved more, bit by bit (it’s not easy for a micromanager to let go of the habit).

Employees changed, too, owning their own actions and outcomes more, waiting less for direction and anticipated correction from others.

We made the way the company ran more predictable, scalable, “delegate-able.” 

We changed the company and team from being the cause of their own problems to being the creators of improved effectiveness and profitability.

We gave them a future that they looked forward to with confidence and zest again.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

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Imagine you’re starting the work to meet a big, compelling goal.

You’re eager to move beyond the way things are to the much better circumstance you wish you had…RIGHT NOW.

You strategize, plan and get ready to dive right in.

But have you already skipped the very first step?

That’s the step of understanding your starting point, as it really is.

All too often I see companies and teams who want to get to work, assuming away challenges they don’t want to think about fully.

They jump into action, ready to move forward from a point far beyond where they really are.

Ultimately, they have to go back and lay the foundation they didn’t really have yet.

The cautionary advice from their experience is that if you don’t:

- Diagnose your situation correctly

- Make sure you and your team are pointed in the same direction

- Know how you’ll work together as a group to reach your mutual goal

Then, it’s almost a guarantee that you’ll:

- Waste precious resources (money, time, attention, energy and goodwill, to name just a few)

- Find that those precious resources, once gone, may be impossible to get again

Try these four key steps to understand your real starting point:

1. Be clear about what you really want.

Sometimes people (and companies and teams) know full well what they don’t want.

They already have that.

But they’re not so sure what they DO want, instead.

Get the picture of your destination as clear as you can.

Describe it in detail, in a way that everyone will recognize it as you work toward it, and will know it when you get there.

Otherwise?

Well, you’d be surprised how different the destination may be that each person, despite the best intentions, may be driving to reach.

Do you doubt that that’s possible?

Just think, then, how many variations there are on the concept of “The Perfect Vacation,” even in one family or group of friends.

One person could envision a lazy, sunny beach vacation with plenty of umbrella drinks, while another may be thinking that the perfect way to spend time off is to scale Mt. Everest.

Big disagreements can occur on the basis of important assumptions that have not been aired and then verified or clarified.

Get clear on your shared destination.

2. If it’s a problem you’re solving, be clear about what it is.

Describe the situation.

Then gather the facts.

This may affirm your impression about what’s going on, adjust it…or may even show you there’s no problem to solve, at all.

3. Be clear about where you really are, before the work begins.

As mentioned, sometimes a leader assumes that the people on his or her team have more – or less – knowledge, skill, or confidence than it turns out that they really do.

Other circumstances may be far different from what you expect, as well, as work begins.

Know what your starting point really is to understand the gap you have to close between aspirations and reality.

Fully understand the resources you have or can get, and the contraints within which you must try to achieve success.

Know, for example, what other high-priority projects are underway, and may be competing for the same resources that you hope to steer your team’s way.

4. Make and communicate your action plan to close the gap.

Create an action plan that makes best use of the resources you have, and can get for this team or project.

Plan the most logical and realistic series of actions that are likely to take you from where you are to the situation you desire, instead.

Plan, also, how you will monitor and measure progress and follow up regularly to ensure that you’re moving ahead.

Whatever your starting point is, whatever gap you have to fill, know that fully understanding and accepting what it is an essential first step to success.

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