Is this an obsession?

As an avid reader of this blog (indulge me), you may be wondering “Does this guy only write about Brad Pitt movies?”

A fair and astute observation you make, dear reader… follower, fan?!

Let’s just say it is ‘as if’ Mr Pitt has identified a specific audience demographic and is focussing all his energy and resources to provide content to this audience segment.

“Movies are products, movie stars are products, who is your target customer, yes, yes, moving right along…”

The stories we tell

Moneyball released in 2011, is adapted from the book of the same name by Michael Lewis. You can read about product lessons taken from Lewis’s other book turned Hollywood hit, The Big Short in my last blog post, Why Product Managers Love Mortgage-Backed Secruities.

It is easy to watch Moneyball and conclude this a story about how data changed baseball and the world of professional sport. And it is this story.

However, nestled into Moneyball’s story of plucky data geeks triumphing over bully-boy baseball bros and big business is a story of personal growth, cultural change and organisational transformation.

Identify the (right) problem

So first, let’s address the data and product bit with a quick synopsis.

Moneyball tells the real life story of Billy Beane (yes, played by Brad Pitt), the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team. After losing the final 2001 season game to perennial favourites the New York Yankees, Billy learns that his team is being “gutted”, a host of his star players are departing for more lucrative contracts with richer teams.

Oakland is playing in an unfair game, trying to compete with teams with far greater financial resources. In a heated meeting with his talent scouts, Billy concludes that he will have to innovate in order to succeed. He repeats to his scouts, “What’s the problem?” which every product manager should be asking themselves and their teams…

As Billy laments, “If we think like the New York Yankees in here, we will lose to the New York Yankees out there!” Smarter people than I have said this, but as I wrote here about McDonald’s and here about bond trading, if everyone else is ‘zigging’ you best start ‘zagging’!

Whilst attempting to trade players in Cleveland, Billy meets Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill). Peter is a Yale graduate and economist who Billy promptly hires. Peter unpacks the real problem that Billy has identified. Billy’s scouts are focused on signing new players and are often persuaded of an athlete’s ability/suitability by a range of spurious criteria and personal biases, e.g. their appearance, attitude, attractiveness of girlfriends, etc.

Peter explains to Billy that instead of trying to “buy players” he should “buy runs” and in order to do this he explains the misunderstood process and economics of how runs are scored, players are rated and how games of baseball and championships are won.

With this data insight, Billy and Peter start to assemble a team of players that they can both afford AND that statistically speaking should be capable of winning the championship that Billy so desires.

Do they win? Well I guess, you’ll have to watch the movie…

Personal Growth

In Moneyball we see a number of the characters go through phases of both personal and professional development.

Billy submits himself to economic theory and data analysis that Peter teaches him. I can hear the anguished cries of product managers screaming “Okay, OKAY! I’ll learn how to do SQL, VBA… whatever!!” First, if this is you, I have a premium rate support line for you… and second, this really wasn’t the point I was trying to make.

As we’ll see, it is his ability as a mentor and leader rather than any data analysis skills that allows Billy to flourish.

Equally, Peter grows in stature as the narrative progresses. He enters, lacking self-confidence. He is deferential and self-deprecating. When we first see Peter in Cleveland, he is an under-appreciated bean counter, at a hierarchical organisation that barely seems to note his existence.

Throughout the story, Peter’s confidence grows reflected in his demeanour and body language. With Billy’s encouragement he builds relationships with the players and ends coaching these alpha-male, millionaire stars in order to improve their performance.

There are a number of personal sub-plots following the players’ journeys in baseball and life. There are some tough moments as we witness how brutal professional sports can be, with players dropped and traded like livestock. Conversely there a few player stories which show how opportunity and encouragement can have transformative impacts on people’s lives…

Transformation

If Moneyball has lessons for anyone it is for organisation leaders. Through Billy Beane it gives a people manager’s handbook for how driven individuals can (almost) single-handedly start to transform a business, organisations and in baseball’s case, the culture and methodology of an entire industry.

Whilst this is not a smooth journey for Billy, who grows as a leader throughout the movie, here are some examples of how you might learn from him on how to do transformation in your own teams…

Know what you want

Billy is clear when he meets Oakland’s team owner that he wants to win a championship, “that is my bar.” This is great. But it can also be helpful to flush out assumptions from your management team, colleagues and stakeholders to see if you all have the same objectives and ambitions. Do you want the same things?

Not without reason, scaled product organisations (even the good ones) seem to spend a inordinant amount of time ‘aligning OKRs’…

Find Allies

While Billy realises he has a problem, he also realises he can’t fix it all by himself, so he hires Peter to help. Other allies reveal themselves as the plot develops. Veteran star player, David Justice is one who Billy converts. Justice is highly paid, but his star is waning with age. At first skeptical and wary of Billy, he is converted by his manager’s radical candour “…I want to milk the last ounce of baseball you’ve got in you. And you want to stay in the show.”

Billy convinces David to set an example to his less experienced colleagues, albeit David like Billy’s initial attempts at mentorship are comically stumbling…

Can’t Cook / Won’t Cook

I think it was me who said “Culture change is HARD.” Some people won’t want to come on a transformational journey with you. Others sadly just won’t be able. Change is often painful.

Billy faces bitter confrontation and obstruction from Grady, his Chief Scout, who belittles Peter’s data-led approach. As things turn personal, Billy decides to fire Grady.

Oakland’s Head Coach is Art Howe (depicted in beautiful grumpiness, by the very sadly late Philip Seymour Hoffman). Art is equally unconvinced by Billy and Peter’s ideas and refuses to select players to fit Peter’s statistical calculations. Assuming their plan will be a disaster, Art makes his team selection based on what might help him interview better for his next job.

Unable to find another way forward Billy takes the extreme step of trading away the players Art is selecting leaving him no choice but to play the pivotal Scott Hatteberg. As Shakespeare said about greatness, some of your team may have to have transformation “thrust upon them!”

As on field results improve after Billy’s intervention, perversely the movie depicts baseball’s media coverage praising Art for his unorthodox coaching brilliance.

This then leads to the saddest moments in the movie as Billy and Peter inform players that they have been traded or worse sent down to a lower division team. Whilst there is drive and a degree of ruthlessness in their actions, Billy and Peter do their best to show compassion for the players impacted by their decisions.

Opportunity

Two of the most heart-warming segments of Moneyball are the scenes with Scott Hatteburg and Chad Bradford.

Hatteburg thinks his baseball career is over after sustaining an injury. Peter though identifies the possibility with Billy of playing Hattebrug in a new position breathing new life into his career. We see in a brief but tender moment the happiness and hope this brings to Hatteburg and his family.

Bradford is perhaps Peter’s crowning achievement. The pitcher has been overlooked by other teams due to his quirky, unorthodox throwing style - a bias of scouts and coaches. Peter’s analysis shows that this has meant he has been overlooked as one of the most effective players in his position in the league. Albeit in a cringing, humorous scene, Bradford expresses his appreciation to Billy pre-game in the locker room.

These types of opportunities are priceless on both a personal and professional level for people. Equally, the ability to identify under-utilised or under-appreciated talent is a key differentiator for successful teams.

Growing as a leader

Throughout all of this Billy stays true to his beliefs and tenaciously follows his objective. He faces obstruction, misunderstanding, disbelief and even ridicule on his quest to transform the Oakland Athletics. In the end though he transforms baseball. Professional sport, even for spectators is now drenched in increasingly sophisticated data analysis.

Billy Beane didn’t just change and transform his team, or even baseball, he changed professional sport!

Equally though, the film depicts how he transformed himself into a more assured and effective leader. And this requires him developing his own empathy and emotional intelligence. At first he tells Peter that he avoids personal relationships with players as he fears this will effect his ability to trade or drop them from the team roster.

However, the film draws an interesting parallel between Billy’s tender relationship with his daughter and the relationship he then builds with his players. As mentioned earlier, Billy arguably stumbles at first as a leader, first with expressing his anger and frustration by taking a bat to a stereo as players dance to music after losing a game. Later, he makes a lukewarm attempt at a pre-game motivational speech.

However, Billy ‘learns by doing’ and by the end of the movie he confidently and warmly swaggers through the locker room boosting his players confidence and morale as they charge to an unprecedented winning streak.

Next week

Product and leadership lessons from Meet Joe Black…