The Set-up

As we write this week’s Monday Huddle Up, Superbowl LX is an hour away. As is tradition in Phoenix where we live, the Phoenix Open golf tournament concludes on Superbowl Sunday, usually just before kick-off. One of the tournament favorites here is always Scottie Scheffler. Not only is he the World’s #1 golfer, has he won the “People’s Open” twice. Scottie always draws huge crowds here.

In this year’s tournament, Scheffler closed the last three days with 65, 67, and a Sunday 64. That as some say is “golfing your ball.” Problem is, he shot a 73 in round one, far below standard for a player of his caliber. In the end, Scottie lost the tournament by two shots, which is the point of this week’s Huddle Up.

In his post round interview Scottie said (paraphrasing), “I’m not going to nitpick a few shots today when I shot 64. It was Thursday’s round that put me in such a terrible position to be able to win today.” Not only is he a great champion, he is smart too.

So often we look at recent events and think about what went wrong at the end, rather than looking back and realizing that we didn’t set ourselves up for victory in the beginning. Sure, Scottie missed a few putts and hit a couple of bad approach shots today. But he was 10 shots behind and in 111^th place after the opening round on Thursday. That is a lot of ground to make up over three days, even for the best in the World.

Looking ahead to tonight’s big game, it may come down to the last play. One team may make a big mistake. One team may make a huge championship winning play in the fourth quarter. Even if one of those things happen, it is likely something that takes place in the first quarter, or even earlier this week during practice, that puts a team in a winning (or losing) position in the end.

The end result isn’t always about that last big play. That is a micro way to look at a 60-minnute clash between two of the best teams in football. The macro way to look at things is to step back and study everything that made up that one moment. Here is how that applies to our industry…..

Does your team have the right resources to “win” in the end?

Can you be competitive in the industry with the system and team you have in place today?

If you keep coming up just a bit short, maybe it’s not the pitch you made or the pathway that was taken, maybe it’s the structure in which your team is operating within.

Take a step back. Look at things from a macro level. Set your team up to win in the closing seconds when the opportunity is there.