– Vince Lombardi
With football season in full swing, usually around this time you see articles about how Fantasy Football can have a negative impact on office productivity. Contrary to this belief, an office Fantasy Football League can actually have a positive impact on office life in a lot of ways:
- Gives coworkers something to talk about
- Encourages interdepartmental communication
- Enhances employee morale over the course of the season
Convinced? Well, unfortunately that’s not the aim of this piece, so we’ll sit that discussion on the sideline and leave it for others to cover. I’ll be addressing how Fantasy Football Leagues and Football Teams in general, mirror some basic elements of the Business functions of a research company with one overlying theme: Team Support = Team Success!
How are the three related?
First, let me paint a picture of what life looks like at a market research company. It’s a dynamic environment, much like that of a football game. The project-based nature comes with hard deadlines and having over 1,000 plays (projects) in a given season (year), a research company has to be agile and improvise along the way. Much like football, success is contingent with a lot of factors, the foundation of which being the players (employees) and the guidance provided by coaching staff (management).
1ST QUARTER: The Organization
The structure of these three entities have striking similarities from top to bottom. Allow me to elaborate with some of the X's and o's.
Ownership & Management: Everything starts at the top
- Football Team = Team Owner or General Manager
- Fantasy Football League = Fantasy Football League Commissioner
- Business = CEO + Executive Board/Management
Coaches & People who craft the game-plan
- Football Team = The Coaching Staff
- Fantasy Football League = The 12 or so people planning Fantasy Football
- Business = The Managers & Employees who draft up what research methodologies are needed and how to execute it
The “Players” who execute the game-plan
- Football Team = The football players in the league
- Fantasy Football League = The players drafted on each Fantasy Football Team
- Business = The Employees & Contractors who execute and collect the necessary data
The “Buyers” who make the organization viable
- Football Team = The fans
- Fantasy Football League = The Fantasy Football League participants
- Business = The Customers or Clients
2ND QUARTER: Level of Talent
With any organization, talent level is inevitably correlated with success.
- In Football, if the coaching staff doesn’t have the training or skill needed to lead, or if the players on the team don’t have the skills needed to get the job done, then the team’s performance is not going to consistently produce “wins”.
- In Fantasy Football, if your commissioner is unorganized and team owners don’t know how to play or who to draft, then they will be unsuccessful.
- In Business, if your organization does not have trained, motivated individuals creating and executing the business plan, the quality of the product/service delivered will suffer.
HALFTIME: Desire to be the Best
With Football, Fantasy Football and the Business of market research, the goal is to be the best and continuously improve, which can’t be accomplished in a poorly run organization with unqualified professionals.
- In Football, bad coaching/management, poor execution and a lack of effort will result in a negative team culture that will never be consistently successful.
- In Fantasy Football, insufficient league/team management and an unwillingness to make trades when players aren’t performing well, is a recipe for disaster. The definition of insanity is doing the same over and over and expecting different results.
- In the Business of market research, if the right data points aren’t being collected, the end result will be of no value to anyone, so there needs to be constant evaluation and the flexibility to make changes when necessary.
Essentially:
- Improvement = Winning
- Complacency= Losing
3RD QUARTER: Calling an Audible
In any given season, setbacks are bound to take place along the way, presenting challenges that can have an effect on the end result, and how difficult or easy it might be to get there. To navigate through these obstacles, you gotta roll with the punches.
In Football and Fantasy Football, injuries and hold outs mirror terminations, resignations and sickness in the Business environment. These unforeseen challenges require organizations to improvise to get the job done, and sometimes this means “throwing up a Hail Mary” to obtain the results or desired outcome.
4th QUARTER: The Final Score
When all is said and done, the conclusions are rarely what was anticipated at the start. For all three, you start with a slew of expectations and forecasts, but you never know what is going to happen until the season gets going, and seldom if ever are all expectations realized.
In the end, you either achieve or exceed initial expectations and finish on top, or you underachieve and fall to the bottom of the standings.
FINAL!
Only in the end can you evaluate trends and performance to see what worked and what didn’t. Looking back on the season or market research project provides a lesson for the future and helps determine further action. As different as they may appear, Football, Fantasy Football, and Market Research all attempt to use the same equation to win:
Professional, trained and motivated players/employees + a supportive coaching staff/executive management = RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
However, having the best team on paper doesn’t guarantee you’ll win the Super Bowl, but without adequate training and a strong work ethic, the probability of success is slim to none. Pat Riley said it best:
“Hard work doesn’t guarantee you anything, but without it, you don’t stand a chance.”
In summary, it’s really about taking care of your people. In life. In business. In football. At the end of the day, people are what make things happen. People win the game, people drive results, and people build your brand.
