For all of us who love baseball, this is always an exciting time of year. Baseball’s spring training is well under way. We even have two games in Japan that will count toward the regular season.
There’s positivity and hope all around all 30 teams. Yes, the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Phillies, and Dodgers have more hope than teams like the Rockies, Cardinals, White Sox, Pirates, and Angels, but even those teams have hope. This is a new season, a new beginning. Every team has something to get behind: a star free agent, an exciting rookie, new management, and the hope of taking a step in the right direction.
That’s an exciting element not readily seen in corporate America.
Even though they are all pros who have been doing this at a very high level their whole lives, they take two months every year to go back to basics, to train as individuals and as a team. It’s the one time a year that failure is okay. They reinforce what they already learned years ago, experiment with new skills, and work on being an effective team that does things the right way.
The best players – and professionals – see every season (or career phase) as a chance to refine, reset, and reach new heights.
On the field and in the office, preparation is everything, fundamentals matter, and adaptability is key. Plus, roster spots aren’t guaranteed in baseball or business; careers in the office and on the field require the same mindset of continuous improvement.
Staying relevant and competitive ensures long-term success – both at work and when you’re competing for your next great job.
It’s an ideal model. The team gets better, individuals learn new skills, reinforce previously leaned skills, and break bad habits. It could be called “Spring Retraining.”
Some of this “retraining” would be good for the business world. We all get so caught up in the day-to-day roles we have been put into that there’s not very much focus on continuous training/skill development.
By embracing the principles of preparation, teamwork, experimentation, learning from failure, and adaptability, corporate professionals can take a page from MLB’s playbook and set themselves up for long-term success.
