Springfield, MA -
You could feel it coming. Two sports-radio gabbers were discussing the Washington Commanders hiring former San Francisco Warriors GM Bob Myers (among others) as a consultant on their search for a new head coach. They agreed in all-knowing terms that this was the stupidest thing they ever encountered, chuckling sarcastically. How could a basketball guy be of any value to a football team?
And therein lies the problem. People are expert at building and protecting siloes and envisioning their work largely in the self-constrained terms of their own business. Too many folks are blind to what one market, business, or profession can teach another. It’s among the narrow-minded tendencies that sank Kodak, which could not see beyond its prowess in film, or Digital Equipment, which could not imagine a world after minicomputers.
Excellent leaders understand the benefits of crossing boundaries and learning best practices from other industries and professions. It can help them break through insularity and incestuousness, enabling them to view their world in fresh, different, and innovative ways.
A 2014 Harvard Business Review piece (“Sometimes the Best Ideas Come from Outside Your Industry,” November) reminded readers that 3M developed a breakthrough concept for preventing surgical infections by consulting a theatrical make-up artist. The make-up professional was expert in avoiding skin infections. The HBR authors told the story of a firm that learned lessons for installing escalators in shopping malls from a mining concern. They also wrote of an inventory-tracking company that applied lessons about sensors gleaned from a miniature-soccer-game manufacturer.
I recall Indy 500 champion Bobby Rahal once telling me in his high-tech “garage” in Hilliard, Ohio that he was less interested in learning from the automotive businesses at Textron (my employer, his sponsor). Rather, he was much more interested in Textron’s Bell Helicopter (gear boxes) and Cessna Aircraft (aerostructures, wing design, specialty materials) units. What can an Indy Car team possibly learn from helicopter and airplane businesses? Plenty.
These cross-industry examples are legion. Their contributions are potent but less obvious than how a winning basketball GM can be of value to a football franchise searching for a new coach. Bob Myers led a major sports and entertainment business to four championships. He knows a great deal about leadership and the art of leading talented young men in the field of play and, generally, men and women throughout an organization. He knows how to recruit, develop, and motivate young talent in a complex, unforgiving, and competitive environment.
After all, the best leadership principles cross all boundaries. Leadership effectiveness is unequivocally the deciding variable in pro football success, as in most organizations, and much more than the technical “x’s and o’s.” The Commanders have been poorly led until their recent acquisition by the Josh Harris investment group. Leadership assessment. That’s the greatest contribution Bob Myers can make to the Commanders and to a conservative football business that loathes looking beyond itself and continues to stew in its own juices.
Image courtesy of Chris Massman.