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Key points
- Due to the rate of technological change, business organizations must become their most agile to survive.
- Sports organizations are far more dynamic, during games, seasons, and off seasons. The secret is role clarity.
- When a player does something well, they are incentivized to do more, not promoted to do something different.
- Business incentives everyone to become an executive, thereby disincentivizing the best players and coaches.
Co-authored by Darryl Kelly
In the last 20 years, 52% of Fortune 500 companies have disappeared. There is no mystery as to why.
Moore’s Law explains how technology has been growing at an exponential rate since the 1960s. The business landscape is changing faster than ever and will change even faster tomorrow.
Product life cycles have shrunk to the point of needing new revenue models to justify building them. The shelf life of knowledge is even shorter. And the threat of disruption is both constant and infinite.
As for the remaining 48% of the Fortune 500, or any other organization wanting to join them, it’s, “Adapt or die.”
But a significant obstruction to success is reliance on models and structures built for a much more stable era, not a time when organic, real-time experimentation and adjustments are absolutely necessary.
Given the dynamic landscape in which it now operates, the business world would be wise to consider a new way of working. It need look no further than professional sports.
The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men
As Mike Tyson once put it, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
As intentional as plans and strategies may be, uncertainty will inevitably land a punch. Even if new tech doesn’t do it, the speed at which market developments and expectations evolve most certainly will.
The success of an organization is determined not by its ability to execute strategy but by how it responds to getting punched in the face. What to do when marketing campaigns fall flat? Or competitors announce new killer functionality? Or star salespeople leave? This is where organizations adapt or die.
Winning sports teams make adjustments mid-game, mid-season, and off-season, constantly reassessing the landscape and shaping the response at every level of the organization. They do incredibly well what businesses do incredibly poorly. The difference can be summed up in two words: role clarity.
Role-ing with the Homies
Sports organizations have three very clear roles.
Players execute the game plan, simultaneously reacting and adjusting, autonomously and in real-time.
Coaches build the game plan, guide in-game performance, and develop the players through practice over the course of the season.
GMs and executives build the team by selecting players and coaches, creating long-term strategy, and standing by in-season to address roster problems and opportunities.
The players have the largest effect on the games, which is why they are the stars.
The coaches have the largest effect on the performance of the players.
And the executives have the largest effect on the organization—but the smallest effect on the outcomes of games.
In sports, when someone does something well, they are not rewarded with a new job that has them do something else. No one believes that being a great player means you should coach or draft a team next year.
In fact, great players succeeding as coaches and general managers are the exception. Former players who succeed in those roles are usually the “heart and soul” role players, relying on character and intellect to overcome the lack of natural ability enjoyed by superstars.
With everyone embracing their roles and staying in their lanes, within and between levels, sports organizations demonstrate a degree of agility that would serve as a massive competitive advantage for any business.
From Great to Bad?
Business, however, has turned great players into bad coaches and executives and left potentially great coaches and executives in the game as players, where they have minimal impact.
But most damagingly, it has created a status hierarchy that incentivizes people to abandon what they do well in order to advance in their career.
It’s time to shake things up. Not by replacing anyone, but by reassigning everyone. And it begins with role clarity.
Players are anyone who execute deliverables. They design and build the products, create the sales collateral, pitch the clients, negotiate the contracts, manage implementations, handle client success, pay the employees, manage the books, and more. Successful players are achievement-oriented, defined by talent and character.
Coaches are managers and team leaders. Their goal is to engage their teams to maximize discretionary effort, develop them to maximize talent, and guide them to the maximize outcomes. Successful coaches are people-oriented, defined by empathy and wisdom.
Executives are strategists. They analyze organizational makeup and performance against long-term strategy, consider the needs and expectations of coaches and the board, evaluate M&A, and seek to move ahead of the market. Successful executives are power-oriented, defined by vision and entrepreneurialism.
Start With Status
In terms of status, a successful business career involves moving from player to coach to executive. This runs counter to both an organization’s and an individual's best interests.
There are many coaches and executives who would love to return to being great players but can’t do so without hurting their career.
Let players play, and pay them as the most valuable human assets of the organization. The best ones get the best contracts and maintain a say in all big coaching and executive decisions. Ensure that focusing on outcomes does not hurt players' careers in any way.
Meanwhile, there are great coaches who are currently players and will never be discovered because organizations are looking for the wrong things. Achievement is a qualification for a raise, not to become a coach.
Usually, teams have a member who is the most connected to everyone else. That person ought to be the coach. Not because they are the best at what they do, but because they connect the best with others and can incorporate their feedback into strategy.
And so long as being an executive is not the only path to career success, the people who want to be executives are exactly the people who ought to be, limited only by performance.
It’s time for business organizations to ask, “Who are we?” both collectively and individually. If they think like a sports team, they’re a lot more likely to win.
Darryl Kelly is Chief Strategy Officer and WEM Business Unit General Manager at Alvaria. He is a 3X founder, 12X board member, and a driving force for industry innovation.
