Management, Employee Retention, and…Fantasy Sports?

I asked my brother to a Dallas Cowboys pre-season game last month in the new stadium.  50(ish)-yard line seats.  Right behind the squad.  Had to crane your neck at a 45-degree angle to see that gargantu-tron.  His response?  Can’t make it - I have Fantasy Football.

Since I know he’s a life-long Cowboys fan, I was shocked.  Aghast.  Even a little miffed.  So I did some reading…what is this fantasy league that has consumed the lives of professional colleagues, friends and family alike?

Here’s what I learned:

Fantasy football is a game that allows fans to take an active role in professional football by creating their own team and competing with teams built by others.  Fans create their own roster of players by drafting talent from actual NFL teams and compete based on those players’ real-life performances in NFL games.  Fantasy owners assume roles similar to that of NFL personnel — a combination of a scout, general manager and owner - drafting players and competing against friends and co-workers in a fantasy league for bragging rights as the best team.

The more I learned, the more I realized there are aspects of the game employers might incorporate into the workplace.

For example:

• Scout, General Manager, Owner
  

This is, pure and simple, cross-training.  Could allowing, where appropriate, an employee to assume for a specific time period the role of a supervisor or counterpart in another department be an impetus for innovation and increased profit?  It would certainly lead to new levels of understanding between people and departments.

• Play Calling
  

Are there departments in your organization where friendly competition could spur productivity?  A sales team comes to mind whereby each team creates “rosters of talent” from current staff and “game plans” for reaching specific company goals (to win!) at the end of a quarter.  To be successful, each individual on the team would certainly need to be engaged, know and understand the company goals, and know and understand all aspects of your business.  Expectations you probably have now.

• Win/Loss Record

At the end of a season, there’s a record of Ws and Ls.  Same for a company with its year end balance sheet.  What mechanism(s) do you have in place that illustrates for employees what their role is within the organization and how their performance impacts their “teammates” and the company’s bottom line?  Is that once a year evaluation plan really doing the trick?

Sound out of bounds?  In sports terms, it’s really a question of whether you want your team missing the playoffs year after year or leading their division.

If nothing else, know your team and what’s important to them.  Maybe the salary cap is worrying your rainmaker.  Maybe a key player, like the Red Sox’s Dustin Pedroia, is anxious about a family priority.

Under the management style Pedroia experienced, it’s probably no coincidence that “the Red Sox are the only team to have won the World Series twice this decade” and have led the American League much of this season  - thanks to Jay Shepherd for the Red Sox edification and an excellent post on “division-leading employee management”.

Whether it’s sport or commercial commerce, teams strive to win.  If that’s what you want from your team, remember what’s important to your players - higher company profits and lowered employee turnover will be the likely result.