Last Thursday I indulged in one of my favorite guilty pleasures, an afternoon movie. I chose Moneyball because Brad Pitt is in it and I like baseball. Other than that, I really didn’t know much about the film. It was an exciting surprise to discover that it is probably the best leadership movie I’ve ever seen and, in particular, a great study on the process of innovation.
The movie is based on the real Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s General Manager, and the A’s challenge of competing with the Yankees & Red Sox who had four times their payroll. During the 2002 season, Billy Beane, with help from his young assistant, Peter Brand, challenges the traditional ways of building a team and introduces a new and controversial approach, sabermetrics.
Here are the lessons I saw about innovation:
- Think differently – Beane is acutely aware that the A’s don’t have the same payroll as other teams, and so they can’t build a team around highly paid superstars in the same way as richer teams. They need to think differently in order to compete, but this means challenging traditional wisdom and the “way things are done.” In an early scene, while the scouts are talking about the connection between looks and skill, Beane says, ” You guys are talking the same old nonsense like we’re looking for Fabio. We have to think differently.” and one scout responds with “Who’s Fabio?” while the others look at him blankly. Thinking differently requires the ability to let go of the old ways of doing things, and embrace the ambiguity that might go with that.
- Be open to insight from unlikely places – While Beane knew he needed to think differently, he didn’t necessarily know how he did need to think. During this time he encounters Peter Brand, who has been working with sabermetrics. Brand is a young economist with absolutely no experience in baseball, and little work experience overall who challenges Beane to “buy runs, not players”, a very radical departure from traditional scouting wisdom. Research is starting to reveal that people who know nothing about a particular industry or product can make significant contributions to innovations in it.
- Don’t let the past determine what you can do in the future – This is as much a general leadership lesson as an innovation one. Beane himself was scouted at an early age and did not end up being the superstar everyone thought. Getting past previous failures seems a hallmark of great leaders and innovators.
- Be willing to risk alienation – Beane did not garner any support from anyone in the A’s organization with his new vision; in fact, he was ridiculed and his head coach refused to cooperate. Fans and sports commentators also started to question his competence. In Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity, Hugh MacLeod suggests that “Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships. That is why good ideas are always initially resisted.”
- Continue to believe in a vision in the face of failure – While Beane was successful in recruiting players using the new approach, the A’s lost almost all their games in the first half of the season. It would have been easy to give up on the dream, but he continued to pursue, going so far as to trade “star” players thereby forcing his manager to use his approach. Those who innovate know that failure is a part of the innovation process. As Dave Kelley, CEO of IDEO, a design firm in California suggests, “Fail often to success sooner.”
My favorite quote of the movie from Billy Beane which really summarizes the nature of innovation, “If we pull this off, we change the game. We change the game for good.”
What is your experience of innovating? Does it line up against these insights?
Written by Tammy.
