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Make Winning Obvious

business communication thinking outside the box scores Jan 12, 2023

In sports it is painfully obvious you need to outscore an opponent to win.

If you say, "That was a big win!" everyone - even non-sports fans - knows that means one team scored more points than the other.

Outscoring an opponent isn't a key to the game it is the measure of success.

Why am I belaboring this point? Because we rarely make it this simple, straightforward or obvious in business. Things get convoluted quickly. There are multiple interests and just like with any game plan, multiple ways to get to the end result. But unlike sports, we rarely make winning as obvious as we should.

As mentioned in the video, winning looks different for different people. The bottom-line drives decisions, but that means something different for a CEO compared to a manager compared to a direct report.

That brings us back to Thinking Outside the Box Scores... it should be painfully obvious to everyone on your team what counts as a win. You should be able to communicate it as simply and clearly as saying "Score more points than the other team." Here's what happens when you do that:

You get better results because your team knows/understands the expectation.
You build community and increase the likelihood of people rallying behind that goal.

Just think about the way sports fans react during games. Whether it's cheering, booing or groaning it's all based on the score or how they think something will affect the score of the game.

That only happens when everyone is on the same page (and in agreement) over what it takes to win.

If you've established goals and objectives for the year, you might want to review them for clarity and use sports fandom to spark bigger conversations about winning.

Make Winning Obvious

Outscoring an opponent isn't a key to the game it is the measure of success.

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