A movie I thoroughly enjoyed was the Brad Pitt sports flick Moneyball.

Some parts are undoubtedly jazzed up for Hollywood but the story is as true as they come.

The movie follows the trials & tribulations of the Oakland Athletics baseball team. It takes place at a time when old-school baseball scouts used to rank potential players using yardsticks like reputation, “the good face” or the ever reliable “he just looks like a baseball player”.

These scouts weren’t stupid by the way. 

Far from it.

They were smart, experienced professionals who’d been watching baseball for 20, 30 or even 40+ years.

i.e. bags and bags of knowledge.

Yet they clung to what they knew.

That’s the backdrop as Brad Pitt joins the Oakland Athletics management team and starts to ask a different question:

What actually wins baseball games?

It's a question the baseball industry missed for decades but which in hindsight isn't that surprising. 

And the answer to that question (on-base percentages) led to a radical change in the Oakland Athletics’ recruitment policy. The team started loading up “ugly” players, aging veterans and players with such obvious flaws in their game that other teams wouldn’t touch them with a bargepole, let alone a baseball bat.

They even hired a player who couldn’t throw the ball due to the nerve damage in his hand!

Long story short, the Oakland Athletics go on a 20 game winning streak, reach the playoffs and turn the whole baseball world upside-down in the process.

And while the Oakland Athletics had one of the lowest payrolls in baseball, fewer resources than their competitors and oodles less star power, they had an ace up their sleeve which none of their competitors had:

Clear thinking.

In my experience, clear thinking like this is incredibly rare.

Needless to say, that rarity also makes it incredibly valuable.

Take big corporates for instance. They're no different from the Oakland Athletics. Sure, the game is different. But getting the best possible results from a team is exactly the same.

Yet how often do corporates stop to ask if their way of doing things even makes sense?

I honestly don’t know. I'm sure it varies.

But what I do know is that clear thinking can slice through complexity like a samurai sword through a watermelon. And one incisive question from an employee can transform a meeting, a team or even an entire organisation. 

So clear thinking is quite the unfair advantage if you know how to tap into it.

But it's only half the battle.

See, it wasn’t all plain sailing with Oakland Athletics.

Before their run of form, Brad Pitt’s character gets mocked by the scouts and then gets ignored by the head coach. To add insult to injury, the new strategy starts off disastrously with a run of losing games. It’s only when Brad doubles down by trading out the previous players and forcing the head coach to play the new recruits does the success begin.

So the other half of the battle is sticking with it when your boss, your colleagues and even the scoreboard all tell you that you’re wrong.

C’est la vie.

The good news is that my coaching is a way to kill both these birds with one proverbial baseball.

It’s a way to help you see your situation with fresh eyes and hold your nerve when everyone around you thinks you’ve lost the plot.

If you’ve got a challenge you keep going round in circles on, my coaching could help.

You can find out more about it here:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com

Once you’ve joined the waitlist I’ll be in touch to arrange a free, no obligation Zoom call where we'll chat more about what you’d like from coaching and figure out whether or not we’re a fit.

To fulfilment,

Tom