Leadership / First Year Teaching /Best Practice
Leadership lessons learned from the movie “Moneyball” for the classroom and school.
The 2011 movie Moneyball provides an engaging look behind the scenes of running a major-league baseball franchise with significant fiscal limitations. Some have argued that the philosophy illustrated in the movie and actually employed by the Oakland Athletics has changed the way franchises put together teams and value talent. However, the article today is not about baseball. It is about some of the lessons that can be taken from the movie and applied to any organization or part of an organization. Lessons from Moneyball can be applied to a school district, a school, or the individual classroom. Many articles have been written about this topic and believe it or not, this has been the subject of many undergraduate classes. We can learn quite a bit about leadership from the movies.
The post today will take a look at the movie through quotes. Let’s start.
- “He passes the eye candy test. He’s got the looks, He’s great at playing his part.”
- It is critical that we work hard to identify talent, and once we identify talent, it is critical that we nurture it. Very rarely will talent grow all by itself. Think about the flower seed. One has a better chance of reaping a bouquet when one takes the time to provide food and water and of course TLC.
- “You are not solving the problem. You are not even looking at the problem.” There is an epidemic failure in the game to understand what is really happening.”
- You must identify your problems and focus, focus, focus. And of course, you must know your problem. This is where you must use the talent that is around you to help understand the situation. Do not forget taking a historical look at the situation. Problems embedded in the culture for an extended period of time may take a unique strategy to solve.
- “We’ve got to think differently”
- It is essential that we learn to think out of the box. You must work to teach yourself to think differently. The old ways of thinking will probably will not solve today’s problems.
- “Your goal shouldn’t be to buy players; your goal should be to buy wins.”
- “Why do you like him? Because he gets on base.”
- “You must have the right people around you”
- These three quotes are extremely powerful and hard to do in the public sector. After you find and identify great your talent, you must ensure that these people are a cultural fit for your school. Work to design your programs and positions around these great people. We once again repeat what Jim Collins says in Good to Great. I paraphrase once again. We must find the right people and place them in the right seat on the bus. I know I went through years with what I thought might be an inferior talent as part of my team until I found the right place for them. Once this occurred, they were able to excel.
- “Hey, anything worth doing is hard. And we are going to teach you.”
- Find people with the right attitude and the right work ethic. You can teach them the rest. Many times the principal or superintendent forget that they must be constantly teaching. To me, content knowledge became less important in any hiring protocol. I would always try to ensure that the person had the intangibles and could fit nicely into the culture of the school.
- “It’s day one of the first week. You can’t junk it.”
- The lesson from this quote is that you must be patient. Change takes time. New programs take time to produce results. Many times, during change, there will be a step back. Do not readily abandon what you believe in. In my haste to show results, I know at times I gave up on change too soon. Remember that patience is a virtue.
- “My bar is to take this team to a championship.”
- Students and staff need high expectations. We all do. Expect excellence!
- “Baseball thinking is medieval. They are asking the wrong questions.”
- When conducting an analysis of any situation, are you asking the right questions? Do you know the right questions? Never be afraid to ask why. The one three letter word is extremely powerful. I ask you to drill down the questioning and make sure everyone knows “why”.
The concept in Moneyball is to identify the “five tool” player. In baseball, the five tools are”
- Hit for average
- Hit for power
- Speed and base-running ability
- Throwing ability
- Fielding
I ask you, what is a “five tool” teacher? This answer will probably be different for everyone. I would start with items such as; attitude, enthusiasm, work ethic, superior pedagogy, ability to build and sustain relationships, superior content knowledge, ability to collaborate, and the ability to work as a team.
There are some other key leadership tips we can pick up from Moneyball. We must work to show people how to play to their strengths and empower and support our team. Your people must fit the culture and you must ELIMINATE MALCONTENTS. (I know this is hard in the public sector, but if you cannot eliminate, you must isolate and disempower. Although this might be hard and painful, this you can do.)
I believe many of the new national and state accountability systems have tried to quantify this, just like in Moneyball. They have tried to equate good teaching with a number drilled down from some equation. If we continue to do this, we will continue to miss the boat. I do not believe great teaching can be quantified by a number. You know great teaching when you see it. You know great teaching when you see the children engaged and learning. You just know great teaching!
References
Shah, Dharmesh. (2012). Start Up Lessons From 17 Hard Hitting Quotes from Moneyball. Retrieved from http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/76799/Startup-Lessons-From-17-Hard-Hitting-Quotes-In-Moneyball.aspx .
