Last week, Buzz Knight and I did our post-mortem on the baseball season. As I was lamenting the disappointing exit of the Detroit Tigers – a team loaded with gifted athletes – Buzz reminded me of the intangibles that led the Red Sox to victory. Looking at their lineup 1-9, there aren’t a lot of guys that scare you, but collectively, the team had that certain something. And in today’s guest blog, Greater Media’s VP of program development explains how that connects to many radio brands. Play ball. – FJ
As the celebration frenzy for the 2013 World Series Champions Boston Red Sox continues, there is an MVP besides the great David Ortiz:
Chemistry.
Time and time again, we observe organizations that have amazing talent and yet can’t succeed despite themselves.
We’ve seen it in business, government, entertainment, media, and in sports.
The Boston Red Sox clearly defined chemistry as a priority goal after last year’s debacle and they never lost sight of it in the team building process. It’s almost as if they got baseball stats guru Bill James and his cast of mathematics geeks in a room and developed some uber-metrics that allowed them to better understand the dynamics of chemistry.
Baseball has always been a stats-driven sport. Fans know various all-time records for home runs, consecutive games with hits, and other details. And yet, all of the numbers in the world can’t take the human element out of developing and nurturing a great cast of characters.
The Sox’ new manager, John Farrell, deserves the credit along with his coaches who served as ring leaders of the clubhouse circus.
A 162 game regular season schedule, spring training, and an extended post season is a long time for the vibe of the clubhouse to go south, but Farrell had the consistent easygoing tone that is all about “environment.” How many times have we been around people who drain the energy out of a room and kill the creative landscape of an organization or a brand? Steady leadership is all about setting up an approachable environment the leader creates, and Farrell completely nailed this part of his job.
A manager needs to manage the environment.
Farrell allowed the characters to be characters and that’s one of the important traits of a great manager. Give them room to be themselves and they will perform better and do it more consistently.
There was even more hilarity when the beard routine developed and became a part of the team’s character and environment.
The Red Sox also seemed to clearly define roles and expectations for every one of its team members. Jonny Gomes, Shane Victorino and Mike Napoli had no doubt what was expected of them, and they were able to deliver when it mattered. They didn’t whine when they weren’t in games, they contributed positively to the clubhouse environment and they stepped up when they were needed.
We should all take a step back and think about the chemistry that exists around us in our radio stations. Are we allowing our talent to be themselves while still applying the necessary disciplines and structure? Are we weeding out the “energy drainers”? Are we maintaining a steady, consistent environment through good times and bad times?
Most importantly, is the environment that we are managing fun?
I realize most of us are in business and we aren’t playing a “game” for a living but perhaps we ought to think in those terms.
At the very least, let’s treat what we are doing in radio like a business… show business!
Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox on being World Champions and having one of the best team chemistries ever.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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An example of a team with great stats and lousy chemistry that didn’t ever reach its potential is the mid-late 80s NY Mets. They had some amazing stats and players, but they never gelled as a team. They did win it all once, but on an error and they had a team that based on numbers alone, should have won several times.
Congrats to the Red Sox for playing to their full potential, having fun at it and bringing a championship at just the right time to a city that deserved and needed it.
And of course, my Tigers. Very likely an MVP and Cy Young winner on the team – and no Series. It may not be a “chemistry” thing but clearly, but something was missing when it mattered. Thanks, Bob.
Buzz knows best! Great insight on team chemistry; and, I’d add that one of the reasons that chemistry developed was because this team had so much talent(from a Yankees-fan perspective, btw)… maybe not the free-agent monster contract talent, but definitely the real ability to pitch, field, hit, etc. Chemistry without talent…who cares… chemistry with talent wins championships!
Thanks, Brian. Interesting to see your “take” on this. Appreciate you sharing it.