The Manager - 125 - Business and Metaphors

THE MANAGER - BY ROB LAMBERT

Hi,
 
I hope you are safe and well and looking forward to another week.
 
It’s been busy at Lambert HQ with home schooling, or should I say, remote learning. I’m also adding the final touches to another book. It’s a self-published physical book this time, containing many lessons and essays on management, along with some nice graphics and images. A kind of photo book. A field guide for managers – one I wished I had had when I was starting out.
 
I’ve also been doing my HR diploma as usual – and I have to say, I am hugely disappointed in it. The stuff they teach kind of explains why HR are often so lagging in effectiveness and rely on grand theories. But I’ll save that for another day. It did, however, inspire me to think about business as metaphors.
 
I’m sure you’ve all heard managers and leaders using sports metaphors - like : “We’re a team, in a game and we’re going to win”. If you haven’t been exposed to this nonsense, then I am jealous for sure. Every single company I have worked in, or consulted with, uses sports metaphors for their business.
 
“Win the race”.
“Destroy the competition”.
“Outpace the competition”.
“Take home the prize”.
 
Yada yada yada. It’s occasionally quite funny when used sparingly, and there are some elements of team games that can be useful for directing strategy, tactics and behaviours, but there can be big problems when leaders and managers use sports metaphors to guide their business.
 
I hear sports metaphors so often that I wonder whether I’m in business consulting at all, or whether I’m consulting sports teams.
 
Here are some of the characteristics of a sports team that you may recognise.
 
Positions, Tactics, Game, Training, Match Day, Competition, Leadership, League, Win, Prize, Lose, The bench, teamwork, audience, crowds, rules. 
 
In a nutshell, we are a team in competition with others for the prize...
 
There are many parallels to a business that make sense; chiefly people coming together to achieve success. These people have different roles to play, positions to be in and activities they need to be good at.
 
There is also competition – we should not shy away from that. And of course, there appears to be some sort of prize (at least for those with enough shares and options).
 
There are crowds to some extent – typically the analysts that make a fortune crafting made up matrices.
 
There are rules, typically legislative in nature, or as a minimum, social constructs that many try to live and work by.  
 
However, sports analogies are annoyingly wrongheaded.
 

• Firstly, the nature of competitive sports is that there is a winner and some losers. In business this is not true, there can be many companies servicing customers in the same industry – all of which could be “winning” as defined by their own standards.

• Secondly, sport is about beating the competition - the goal of most teams is to win the league, the cup, the trophy, the game. But being in business is not about beating the competition, it is about offering the customers something they cannot get from the competition. You could argue this is beating the competition – but the way it is achieved is very different. Trying to simply "beat the competition" is what results in the stealing of ideas, lowering prices, backhanded trades and the many shady deals we read about every day in the news. Offering customers something the competition do not offer requires creativity, strong relationships and a willingness to study and learn.

• Thirdly, sports players train hard during training seasons but they only operate at 100% on game day. In business there is an assumption that people will work at 100% all of the time. Athletes and pros don't. Sports stars train and practice for the main event. Practice is preparation. Yet in work, we don’t spend our days practicing – we spend them working. We do the work that we are paid to do - the work that adds value. It is a form of practice, but it is not practice for "game day". And nobody should be expected to work 100% all day every day.

• Fourthly, sports managers and business managers share many traits in common, but business is much more dynamic and fluid than sports. The rules are broader, and the "competition" may not be playing by the rules. When the competition doesn’t play by the rules and try “to beat us by whatever means” it can take the referees (regulators) months, sometimes years to catch up. Just look at how slow regulators are when it comes to the social media and tech giants who avoid tax, unfairly treat employees (looking at you Amazon) and create highly anti-competitive environments. Referees in sports games offer immediate feedback when rules are broken. Companies can pivot to another business model – sports team rarely switch sports. There are differences. Big differences – yet some striking similarities.

 
In fact, I recommend John Wooden’s book on leadership to all managers – it’s brilliant. He was a basketball coach and his lessons on leadership are wonderful. But here’s the thing – he didn’t operate his basketball teams like most sports managers and coaches do. He wasn't out to beat the competition as his main goals. In fact, he didn’t care if the team won or lost – he only cared whether everyone played their best and treated each other right…..a rare breed in the industry.
 
As you can tell I'm not a fan of sports metaphors and find they create some dubious behaviours in the workplace when they are taken too far. When I see it in a workplace it's usually because the CEO or Chairperson is highly competitive. This competitive streak makes its way into the business and people starting grinding, hustling and working to destroy the competition.

I often see this same mindset create internal competition, which rarely leads to an ethical and positive culture. It also masks the very reasons the business exists - to provide value to the customers, not to beat the competition. Using sports metaphors often boils business down to a zero sum game: one winner, many losers. But business doesn’t have to be like that.
 
There are many positives from looking at your business as a sports team:
 
The creation of a solid team unit, all working together, each person performing their roles and responsibilities well, better defined roles and responsibilities, better appreciation of the roles each person provides, better routines and processes, better discipline and better communication......but let's drop the sense of competition.
 
The metaphor I fall back on time and time again, is to look at business as a living natural organism. It takes time to grow (because let’s face it, the fastest growing and spreading organisms are the ones we don’t want). It is natural and adapts to the environment. It requires the right conditions to grow. It is complicated and affected by many factors. It can change shape or form. It’s a system. By looking at our business (and the competition) as part of a system, we can start to spot the connections, the differences, the way we all affect each other.
 
What metaphors do you use that describe organisations? And do you find them useful?
 
Until next time
Rob..
 

Latest Video - Everyday carry

With a glimmer on the horizon of us returning to work - I thought I'd share my everyday carry as a manager (consultant).

https://youtu.be/2AwDve3YQyE
 

FOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN

Only 5 articles piqued my interest enough this week and were good enough to share with you, but my word - the first one is great.

1. A brilliant speech on self renewal. My word, where has this been all my life? I need this right now - and it's wonderful. 

2. We are all hypocritical, yet we often don't see it in ourselves....we use different standards to judge sometimes. This is a good article - and this is why I recommend all managers and leaders set a high bar - and live it themselves. If they cannot - how can they expect others to?

3. Wouldn't it be great if we had 13 months, each one with 28 days, and then a "year day" for the leftover day? We need days, we need weeks, we need years but do we need months?

4. Whistleblower lines are important. They allow employees to speak up when they see something wrong, illegal, immoral. I'm a fan of them and try to create them in every company I work. Alternatively, employees could be encouraged to speak up when they see something wrong. This is not always possible - and sadly, sometimes there are consequences for it. There shouldn't be, but alas, some leaders simply cannot handle the truth. 

5. Don't just say "No" to incoming requests - say "when?" and use your calendar to show your work. Big fan of calendar blocking - got a new video coming out in a few weeks about it. 

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Thanks
Rob..