Moneyball
In the movie Moneyball, Billy Beane changes the view of baseball operations with the help of Peter Brand, an in-game statistical analyst. Beane is the General Manager of the Athletics team, which is financially low and has lost some of its players. As the team’s general manager, Beane is determined to change its status and see it through to playing significant championships (Cullen et al., 2009). However, Beane’s method of recruiting players and conducting major operations causes massive resistance from other team executives. Moneyball highlights the major resistance that Peter Brand and Billy Beane face in the process.
Mr. Beane uses help from Brand to predict players’ future performance based on records rather than current progress. When hiring a player, traditional baseball scouts use the current player’s records, assumed to be their potential and the support they get from their fans. Conversely, Beane uses the players’ statistical analysis of their past records to achieve a base. He believes that with the right combination, a base will help the team gain more runs, while good runs translate to wins. Cullen et al. (2009) highlight how in the process of building the team, Beane faces resistance from the scouts, his manager, and the team members.
Who is Resisting this Change and Why?
The traditional scouts perceive Beane as a lunatic because he, with the help of Brand, wants to use mathematics and statistics to predict the future of a baseball team. The scouts do not want to change the method used to predict the performance of a player using current performances. The scouts believe that a good player has to be expensive, and the team cannot afford them (Wasserman et al., 2005). Hence, they want to hire average players who are within their budget. Conversely, Beane believes in hiring team members who were good in the past but have not played for some time for a low budget. According to their statistics, Beane and Brand believe these players can achieve a good base which will lead to their win.
Oakland Athletic’s manager resists the recruitment of the new team members by favoring the old members. Art Howe is an obstacle to Beane’s strategy of hiring cheap players as he perceives it as a ridiculous idea. Wasserman et al. (2005) note that he favors his preferred team members and refuses to work with the newly hired ones. Art Howe weighs the benefits he achieves from the team rather than how the new team members benefit the team. Often, in a change process, people look out for their interests in the change process.
Consequently, the newly hired team members resist the change by not taking their roles in the team seriously. The new players do not believe in the team at first, a fact that makes Beane furious. However, Beane can overcome the resistance by showing the team members the seriousness that the team requires to have in order to achieve the required runs to win. Sometimes managers can fight back by showing their emotions to the team members.
What tactics do Billy Beane and Peter Brand use to overcome resistance to their new approach?
Beane and Brand used various tactics to help them implement the needed change in Oakland A’s. First, Holmes et al. (2018) highlight how Beane hired Peter Brand, an external member of the team, as a change agent. The brand comes into the team as an in-game statistician who helps to predict the right team players that shall achieve the desired performance. The brand helped Beane to overcome his internal doubts by assuring him of the statistical mix that shall achieve success.
Additionally, Beane uses the persuasion tactic to convince the traditional scouts of his new idea. Beane holds numerous meetings with the team’s scouts to explain his idea of a team that uses mathematics and statistics to win. Also, Beane visits most of the scout members at an individual level while trying to gather their support. Unfortunately, persuasion does not help him to win support immediately.
Moreover, Beane uses the elimination tactic to achieve support from the team’s manager. Art Howe, who is Oakland A’s manager, favors some of the team members while discriminating against others. In response to this resistance, Beane eliminates all the old team members that were favored by the manager (Holmes et al., 2018). This tactic was successful as the manager worked with the remaining team equally.
What lesson can you take from this experience concerning the nature of resistance and methods for overcoming resistance to change?
From the movie Moneyball, I learn that change can be a messy process in an organization. When introducing a new concept in an organization, people will want to see the results of the change immediately. However, I have learned that change takes time to yield fruits; rather, people should be patient in a change process. In addition, the movie helped me understand that not all stakeholders support the change process. However, it is right to show them how the change shall be beneficial to them.
Conclusively, Moneyball teaches organizations how hectic the whole process can be. Billy Beane’s ideas of a successful baseball team from a low financial budget are beyond the normal thinking in baseball. Beane intends to overcome the traditional thinking of baseball scouts that good players are expensive. He introduces a new method of recruiting a low-budget team based on mathematics and statistics of their records to predict future performance. Beane, who is the general manager of Oakland Athletics, hires Peter Brand, a statistical analyst, to predict the future performance of the team theoretically. The traditional scouts, the team’s manager, and the team members resist his operations. However, Beane employs various tactics such as the introduction of an external agent, persuasion, and elimination.
References
Cullen, F. T., Myer, A. J., & Latessa, E. J. (2009). Eight lessons from Moneyball: The high cost of ignoring evidence-based corrections. Victims and Offenders, 4(2), 197-213.
Holmes, P. M., Simmons, R., & Berri, D. J. (2018). Moneyball and the baseball players’ Labor Market. International Journal of Sport Finance, 13(2).
Wassermann, E., Czech, D. R., Wilson, M. J., & Joyner, A. B. (2005). An examination of the Moneyball theory: A baseball statistical analysis. The Sport Journal, 8(1).