Adam Markel delivers a spoken talk (YouTube) using a baseball mound analogy to reframe accountability conversations in teams. He argues such conversations are commonly experienced as judgment, but should instead be rooted in support and "love," focused on helping the individual and the team achieve the single shared goal: winning. He also references the event logistics and staff planning as examples of organizational care and attention to detail that contribute to that team success.
Chapters
Some of you might recognize this team. What's happening on the mound? What do you think that conversation is about right now? Call it out. I could still. What else is happening there? What are you thinking? Right? Is that conversation on the mound, which is really typical in baseball. And I'm not. You know, you may not love or watch baseball, but this is applicable in every area, especially in business, that conversations about accountability have a particular feeling to them. So what's going on the mound? Are they walking out there and going, hey, you stink. I can't believe you call yourself a professional. Hit the showers. We're sending you back to the minors? Is that what they're saying to this guy? They're like, yeah, how you feeling? How's your arm? What were you thinking? What are we gonna do for like. Because all they want to do is one thing. What do they want to do on that field? Every single person, they want to win. They got one goal as a team, and that's to win a game. You look at what happened here this week, the way this room was set up for you, every detail that was looked after by this staff. That beautiful evening that was planned for last night. How flippin cool was that last night, what we did? Hello? Yes. Yes. It was impeccable. And that's exactly how this organization is winning a game. This conversation is not about judgment. So many accountability conversations feel like judgment. Nobody wants to be judged. Nobody wants to judge anyone else. That conversation on the mound is about something else. That might sound funny in a business context, but it is a conversation that is not rooted in judgment. It's rooted in love. It's rooted in love. The only thing that everybody is out there to do is to figure out how to support that guy and support the team. Isn't that true?
