Don’t always buy the conventional thinking

Whether you love him or hate him, most baseball experts will say that St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa is one of the best.  What I find fascinating about him is his unconventional approach to the game and I think there are lessons for us in business. 

Baseball has been around seemingly forever, and part of what makes it so popular across generations is that most of the rules and conventions of the game have not changed – ever.  For example, the pitcher is viewed as the weakest hitter in the line-up and therefore is always penciled in to hit last in the batting order. (In the American league, they don’t even let the poor guy bat at all!)  LaRussa has theories only a mathematician – or tarot card reader – would love, and he backs them up with stats and research.  He will often bat the pitcher in various line-up spots - usually changing it game to game.  He also disregards other “sacred cows” in baseball.  He gets second guessed a lot, but I’m pretty he doesn’t care what others think - he only cares about winning.  

Managing a business is also full of rules and conventions taken for granted.  I can think of  a number of assumptions that are followed every day by just about every company: the importance of an annual budgeting process;  the need for formal performance reviews; the belief that the best sales people are motivated by commissions … you get the picture.  When we hear stories of organizations that don’t follow these conventions, we assume they are trendy… or small … or outliers … or in a different business than we are.  But are they?  Remember when the underlying assumptions behind outsourcing, flex hours, virtual offices, and job sharing seemed trendy and ridiculous?    

I realize it’s hard enough to deal with all the issues that happen on a daily basis without looking for trouble.  Plus, there are all kinds of people inside and outside of the organization ready to second guess the decisions made in the corner office (cubicle, car, or Starbucks these days). 

If you are really running the business to win, you should take a tip from the Cardinal’s skipper: do some research and question those basic rules and conventions - at least once in a while.