Remember that scene in City Slickers where Billy Crystal is at his kid’s school for parents night? He as to get up in front of his son’s class and tell the kids what he does for a living. Since he sells radio time, and since he’s mired in a mid-life crisis, all he can think to say is “I sell air.”
The kids have just been treated to an entertaining and graphic story from another dad who works construction. When Billy gets up there to describe his life’s work, the kids just sit there and stare. Needless to say, his own kid is mortified and Billy’s character reaches a new low in his life as he concludes that there is no redeeming quality in what he is doing for a living.
Explaining your job to kids is an interesting excercise.
The young audience forces you to look for the simplest and most basic aspects of your job. Depending on how you look at it, any one of our jobs can seem alternately challenging or mundane. And as Billy Crystal’s character realized, it’s not so much the job as the way you do it that makes the difference.
You ever get the feeling someone up there is trying to tell you something?
My dad always say, “a man needs a job worth doing.” Not sure where he got that one, but I’ve always remembered it because it’s true. Now that we’ve evolved our culture to the point where millions of people don’t have to grow their own food or kill game to eat, we have more time to spend contemplating our navels. And because we spend so much time at work, our jobs can become big parts of our identities. It’s not necessarily true that “you are what you do”, but it’s easy to think that way. And what if it were true?
Are you really doing a job that’s “worth doing”?
These words from Jerry McGuire’s famous mission statement come to mind:
We are losing our battle with all that is personal and real about our business…A man is the sum total of his experiences. And it is now that I am interested in shaping the experiences to come. What is the future of what we do? Give me a goal, and I will achieve it. That has been my secret design for most of my life. Perhaps you are the same. We’re all goal-oriented, so I hereby present a goal.
How can we do something surprising, and memorable with our lives? How can we turn this job, in small but important ways, into a better representation of ourselves? Most of us would easily say that we are our jobs. That’s obvious from the late hours we all keep. So then, it is bigger than work, isn’t it? It is about us.
How do we wish to define our lives? So that when we are sixty, or seventy, or eighty and we’re sinking down onto that cool floor of O’Hare airport, with playoff tickets in our pockets, perhaps we too can know that we led A Happy Life? Is it important to be a Person and not just a slave to the commerce of Professional Sport? Do we want to be Remembered?
Or do we just want to be the guy who sold the guy who sold shoes that came with the little pump?
Recently I was asked by the son of a client, in so many words, “What do you stand for?” I was lost for an answer. At 14, I wasn’t lost for that answer. At 18, I wasn’t lost for an answer. At 35, I was blown away that I had no answer. I could only look at the fade of a 12 year-old boy, concerned about his dad, needing my help, just looking at me for the answer I didn’t have.
The look on that kid’s face is a part of me now. And the feeling I had, and have now, is pushing me forward, writing this Mission Statement.
Is this art imitating life, or what?
I’ve been studying the book, Mavericks at Work, in preparation for an upcoming Indianapolis Book Club meeting. This group meets monthly to discuss business books and share ideas across industries. Anyway, the Mavericks book unpacks 32 case studies of companies large and small that are making their mark as original and inspirational leaders in business.
One of the central themes in the book is that “maverick” companies will succeed based on the strength, not of their products or business models, but of their value systems.
Here are the big ideas:
1. Maverick companies have a distinct sense of purpose, a unique vocabulary, they reject opportunities for short term gain (if they don’t fit their values) and would be sorely missed if they were to go away.
2. Maverick companies realize that they don’t have all the answers. Instead, they employ “open source” innovation, drawing on the wisdom of the crowd. They realize that the only true leadership is “thought” leadership”.
3. Maverick companies believe that that the best customer is an educated customer. They look for ways to connect their customers to eachother and they encourage participation from their customers in the overall “community” of their brands
4. Maverick comanies recruit the best people, and create systems for people to succeed. They run their companies as if people matter.
As I’ve read this book I’ve been forced to reflect on the NFL in general and our Websites (my job) in particular. I’ve been asking myself question like,
1. Beyond selling stuff, what big ideas are we fighting for?
I believe the NFL is the ultimate unifying force in this country. It’s a huge connecting point for people who may not agree on any other front. When people connect good things can happen. I like the idea that our Website can be the catalyst for personal and professional advancement for citizen-fans, and sponsor-partners of the NFL.
2. Are we too focused on ourselves to realize new opportunities?
We’ve all heard the phrase “thinking outside the box.” But where does the box come from? The “Mavericks” book points to “industry” mindsets. Most companies look only as far as their “competition” to see where they need to go next. Mavericks, on the other hand, believe that the only real leaderships is “thought” leadership. True innovation comes from thinking differently from everyone else. Look for aspects of your business that are broken, and fix them.
Jeff Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist, was recently quoted as saying, “Focusing on competition is never something we do.” For Craigslist, there is no competition. There is only their community. They don’t focus on outdoing another company in “their space.” Instead, they think about their customers and about ways they can add value. They are not looking to “monetize eyeballs.” They let profit take care of itself. Refreshing.
3. Could we benefit from treating our customers better?
Personally, I get the sense that the NFL could benefit from opening up to more voices from the outside, and making a more concerted effort to deliver value to our customers. What do fans and sponsors really “get” from their NFL experiences? I feel like they deserve more than they’re currently getting, and if we focused more on delivering value, we’d end up winning too.
4. Why would brilliant people want to work with us and for us?
The Mavericks book describes how the best companies recruit and retain great people. That got me thinking…clearly our team puts an emphasis on recruiting and retaining football talent. We understand and appreciate the value of our players. But our human resource system on the administrative side of the biz is almost non-existent. We have some great people, and we work very hard, but I wonder if we put our minds to it could we find ways to make the front office an even more innovative and inspirational place to work?
What does all this have to do with an NFL team website?
Plenty. Every day that goes by I am more and more convinced that something big is happening. The media world is changing and allowing humans to do more of what we are built to do: commune and create. The real growth companies are the ones who see what’s happening and are jumping in with both fee. This may seem incredibly obvious to readers of this blog. You are likely to be among the thought leaders, fully aware of the implications of Web 2.0. and the enabling technologies that are emerging.
But your boss may not be so enlightened. And your customers may be starving for the kinds of benefits that Web 2.0 offers.
More from Jerry:
Sports may never be the pure and simple thing that older men pine for. That ball park in the corn fields of Field of Dreams is, of course, a fantasy that lives in the mind. Sports is a huge operation, always was, but now that fact is no longer a secret that lives in the luxury boxes of ownership. The secret is out of the bag. Way, way out. Everyone knows that sports is a machine. The Endorsement is now in danger of overshadowing the game. The commercials are often more interesting than the telecast. Money sits on the bench, right alongside the players. The players know, the owners always knew, the fans know. The machine has moved into our homes.
The question is, how do we personalize that machine? It is a question we must now ask ourselves at S.M.I.
I propose that, like the world embraced those telephone answering devices, we talk to the machines. We deal with the future that is already here. It isn’t even the future, it is now, so let us talk to the Machine and see what it says to us.
Let’s bring soul and character to what is already there. I propose that we recreate everything that we’re currently about. Right now we’re at the top of our game. Traditionally people do one thing at this point in their success. They try like hell to maintain what they did to get there.
Their personal and intense road to success, their original inspiration (which is at the heart of every success) is now lost in the pursuit to keep the money machine smoothly rolling forward. Delivering crisp green sheets of greater and greater amounts of fortune. But there is a problem with this stage in the success game. In so doing this maintain-success cycle, they forget the original glimmer of passion that got them there.
More from me:
I believe the NFL may not see, or may be ignoring some of the opportunities presented by Web 2.0. If I’m right, then the league may wind up missing somethign big, but surely it won’t feel the difference for a while. The NFL is a big business and it will continue to thrive without changing its business model. It will continue making money by “monetizing eyeballs.” And that’s OK.
But I think there’s an opportunity to do much more than that. I believe we will get bigger by thinking smaller. Let’s think about people. Let’s think about connecting. Let’s get real. Let’s open up the conversation to include more diverse perspectives. Let’s get a little messy. This is just a game after all.
The author of Jerry’s Mission Statement is Cameron Crowe. His final paragraph reads:
Let us start a revolution. Let us start a revolution that is not just about basketball shoes, or official licensed merchandise. I am prepared to die for something. I am prepared to live for our cause. The cause is caring about each other. The secret to this job is personal relationships.
Sign me up.
