All I Ever Needed to Know About Performance Management, I Learned from 8-year-old Baseball....

As part of this blog, I try to mix in a little bit of my life.  Not too much, but I'm getting better at sharing what's going on in Wayne's KD's World and figuring out how it connects with this thing called HR/Talent.

Today, I'm sharing a snippet from last week.  To manage your expectations, there are no tales of my marriage crumbling (I haven't asked Mrs.Capitalist to go along with a job relo recently), nor have I been thrown in the county lockup as a result of an Evan Williams induced ragefest.  Wrong guy.

Nope - today I'm simply here to tell you that all I need to know about performance management I learned from 8 year olds.  Here's the scenario:

-I'm currently coaching an All-Star baseball team of 8 year olds.

-We've done pretty well, but we lost a recent game and our outfield was struggling.  Really struggling.  Like Bad News Bears struggling.

-We had practice the next night.  We did outfield drills that were pretty simple in concept.  Run and catch the ball, and if you can't catch it, don't let the ball get by you. 

-No one could catch or stop the ball.  It was bad.

-I let it go on for about 10 minutes, feeling like the most inept coach in the history of sports. 

-Then I thought, it's scoreboard time.

-I said the following to the kids:  "Guys, we're going to make this a game.  If you catch the ball in the air or stop it from going to the fence, you get a +1.  If you drop the ball or the ball gets by you, it's a -1.  After 15 minutes, we'll stop, add up the scores and declare a winner.  Winner gets to watch the others take a hard lap around the field".

-RESULT - intensity went up 500%, and the kids kept competing even when they dropped a ball.  It became a game with a scoreboard, and as a result, the kids had skin in the game.

Good lesson from a performance management standpoint.  That which is measured and communicated gets results.  Competition is good.  Never apologize for setting up a system where everybody competes and as a result, the players play their best.

If that doesn't work, I can always channel coach Buttermaker below...

Comments

[Tracy Tran]

Somebody should of mention that to Luis Castillo.

[Robert LaGow]

Or any of the Washington Natinals.

[Tracy Tran]

So true, sotrue. Although, they might get lucky with Stephen Strasburg this year and the LeBron James of Baseball next year. Then again, we are talking about the Natinals.