Lessons In Teamwork From The Toronto Blue Jays

It’s been a great year for baseball, if you live in Canada. And now that the Jays are out of the playoffs, there are still some great examples that we can take away from watching this team make their biggest come back of the past 2 decades.  Winning isn’t just for sports teams; it can be for Your team too!
 
1.Your past doesn’t determine your future.
At the beginning of this season, it had been over 20 years since The Jays won the World Series, or even made it to the playoffs.  But that didn’t matter, because every season is a fresh start; another chance to go all the way.  How often do we judge our team by their past failures? Do we ever look at our team with new eyes, or give them the opportunity for a fresh start?  Sometimes all that’s needed for a team to succeed is to wipe the slate clean and start anew.  You don’t have to wait for a change in management or a shift in staffing – give your team the benefit of a new beginning and see how well they can perform this season.
 
2.Your team on paper doesn’t always equal your team on the field.
The Jays set up their roster to include talented players with a variety of skills. They literally, and figuratively, need to cover all their bases. But building a great roster isn’t unique to their 2015 season, so what makes the difference between a team on paper and a team in the field? Any great sports fan will tell you, it’s ‘heart’.  In the corporate world we might call this our team spirit or the culture of our organization.  Having employees who can perform their roles well is only one piece of the puzzle; how those members work together as a team is a whole other ballgame, so to speak.   If your team spirit is at an all-time low, your team’s performance is unlikely to measure up to playoff standards. Don’t brush off employee engagement or team-building events as an HR-mandated task to check off your list: how your team performs on the field could mean the difference between winning and losing.   

​​​3. It doesn’t matter who gets the credit.With a team whose players make millions of dollars each season, The Jays locker room would be an ideal breeding ground for egos to run amok. A pecking order could easily develop, based on who makes the most money, or who brings the most value to the team. In some organizations, we hang our hat on years of service or hours logged at our desks.  But if you asked The Jays players “Who was the MVP of your team this season?” they’d probably all have someone different in mind. One person alone didn’t take them to the playoffs. Sure there were some great hits and well positioned catches, but they won each game as a team. Are you encouraging your staff to share their personal wins with their teammates?  Or does your group’s performance rely on the mentality of ‘every person for themselves’?  When a group begins to share the credit for their success, it’s amazing how much they can accomplish! 

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4. The further you go, the more fans you’ll gain.
Every sports team has their diehard fans – those who cheer them towards success regardless of how well they’re doing each season.  What each team also has are even more people who just don’t care – they have no vested interested whether that team wins or loses.  But if you spend all of your time and energy convincing the latter group of your potential to win, that doesn’t leave much time and energy for you to play a winning game.  Throughout the season, The Jays gained more and more fans. And while they may be referred to as ‘band wagon fans’, these folks added to the celebrations - and the franchise profits - nonetheless!  By the end of game 6 against Kansas City, The Jays held the entire nation as their captive audience; millions upon millions of supportive, excited fans, standing behind them and wishing for their success.  But if they’d started their season with the primary goal of recruiting fans, rather than practicing and playing the game of baseball, I doubt they’d have made it to the first round of the East Division.  Is your team focused on convincing others of their success versus actually working towards succeeding?   

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5. The further you go, the more fans you’ll gain.
Every sports team has their diehard fans – those who cheer them towards success regardless of how well they’re doing each season.  What each team also has are even more people who just don’t care – they have no vested interested whether that team wins or loses.  But if you spend all of your time and energy convincing the latter group of your potential to win, that doesn’t leave much time and energy for you to play a winning game.  Throughout the season, The Jays gained more and more fans. And while they may be referred to as ‘band wagon fans’, these folks added to the celebrations - and the franchise profits - nonetheless!  By the end of game 6 against Kansas City, The Jays held the entire nation as their captive audience; millions upon millions of supportive, excited fans, standing behind them and wishing for their success.  But if they’d started their season with the primary goal of recruiting fans, rather than practicing and playing the game of baseball, I doubt they’d have made it to the first round of the East Division.  Is your team focused on convincing others of their success versus actually working towards succeeding?   

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6. The team you start with isn’t always the team at the end.
If office teams were like sports teams, we’d probably see our employees change roles/teams/companies a lot more frequently.  But since most of our teams are not like sports teams, we don’t always get the opportunity to frequently change roles … but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t ever change up our team.  There are so many dynamics required to make a team work well, and sometimes, this requires us to change the actual players. Every person on your team should add value – even the newest addition.  Consider this; Roberto Osuna - the Blue Jays closer this season, was a rookie who wasn’t even born when the Jays last won the World Series!  Who are you overlooking on your team? Which players need to be moved around, in order for everyone to shine?

7. Even when you do it all right – you don’t always win.
Even with all these lessons in team building there is no such thing as a guaranteed win.  Your team will encounter obstacles and hurdles that will sometimes leave you at a loss.  When this happens, just remember that classic line from the movie The Bad News Bears: “…. And another thing - just wait till next year!” And don’t forget lesson #1 (see above!) from our friendly neighbourhood baseball team.