Skip to content

Hit A Grand Slam With Team Connecting

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Summer is officially here and we couldn’t be more excited! The sun is shining, kids are out of school, and it’s baseball season.

Baseball is the ultimate results-driven business. There are statistics for everything – batting average, runs scored, and errors, not to mention OPS, WHIP, ERA, OBP, SLG, RBI, and a bunch of other acronyms most of us don’t understand. It’s also a highly stressful and competitive environment with lots of failures. The “best” hitters in baseball fail to get on base two out of three times. With every pitch something good (or bad) can happen.

If you enjoy baseball as much as we do, it’s hard to miss the (new-ish) trend of bat flips, dance moves after base hits, elaborate handshakes between teammates, and ridiculous home run celebrations in the dugout.

So, why do these professionals let loose and have fun when there’s so much on the line including big salaries, performance-based job security, and team success?

Around The Bases

The secret with baseball, like other sports, is a focus on team chemistry. How well any given squad performs is largely dependent on the chemistry between the players. On any given day, everyone is expected to perform their job, but there’s also a critical team component. When someone is having an off day hitting, another teammate can step up and have a great game. When someone makes an error fielding, the best teams find a way to overcome the error. Players also tend to feed off each others’ successes when a team gets on a hitting streak.

There’s a reason team sports are appealing to many athletes: together, you can do something bigger than what you can accomplish on your own. In fact, in baseball, it’s impossible to be successful as an individual contributor.

Team Connecting In The Major Leagues

Chemistry isn’t developed in a lab. It’s established by leadership – especially the Manager – and by each and every interaction between team members. Chemistry – and culture – is established both from the top down and the bottom up.

Good managers and coaches create psychologically safe environments where players get to show up as their authentic selves while adhering to an agreed standard of behavior. Good managers and coaches allow players to express themselves in unique ways but also establish rituals to bring a team together. Great managers do all this while encouraging high performance by putting players in the right positions, making tough decisions when needed (like benching or trading players), and connecting a team in a shared purpose.

The players have a role too. Players create special handshakes to connect with one another. Teammates give each other silly hats when they hit a home run to celebrate together and recognize the job well done. Grown men dance in the dugout together simply to have fun in what can be a stressful environment.

The Perfect Double Play

Companies can learn a lot from baseball teams because the stakes can be high when it comes to work too. We have performance-based jobs, we depend on salaries to make a living and support our families, and our contributions, big and small, help our team win. Big work projects can feel as significant as the World Series. We, too, need chemistry – aka Team Connection – to succeed together.

What we learn from this approach to culture is balance. Balance of who’s responsible, balancing high stakes situations with fun and games, and balancing hard work with camaraderie and connection.

Everyone benefits from a break from stress. A less stressed out individual is a more effective contributor and better teammate. Removing (or at least reducing) stress allows us to enjoy what we’re doing to a greater degree. And a department full of effective contributors who enjoy what they’re doing and are connected can do great things, like win a World Series.

There is joy in playing baseball and we believe joy is possible (and necessary) in the workplace too. This is what we specialize in – helping get employees out of their day to day (stress) and giving them an opportunity to connect through fun.

Hit A Grand Slam For Your Team

We’d love to run the bases with you! 

Contact us to get started!