The Roots of Postseason Glory

The New York Mets will host the Philadelphia Phillies today in front of nearly 42,000 rabid fans at Citi Field.

But long before they earned a reputation as one of the most resilient teams in baseball, long before they clinched a playoff birth, they were a fledgling franchise fighting for relevance at the beginning of the season.

The Mets started 2024 with five consecutive losses, and in their sixth game, didn’t have a hit into the eighth inning as they trailed the Detroit Tigers in a nearly empty ballpark.

“It feels like rock bottom,” announcer Gary Cohen said at the time.

Six months later, the team is now competing on the biggest stage in the sport.

Why is the turnaround relevant to us as coaches, executives, and decision-makers?

We often craft strategies before the season, before the business cycle, or before the school year that we feel will put those we lead in the best positions to succeed.

Sometimes, however, our plans don’t pay immediate dividends.

Our philosophies can look bad, we can appear clueless, and the din of skepticism around our larger abilities can increase in volume.

Just because we’re not seeing immediate evidence, though, doesn’t mean that our plan won’t work or that we’re on fool’s errand.

The Mets’ turnaround has two lessons for any leader struggling off the starting blocks:

1. Do we have enough of a sample size to draw accurate conclusions?

We often like to get ahead of the curve and take action when we’re not attaining the desired outcome, as if there’s a perfect correlation between our philosophies and the immediate outcome.

But any meaningful pursuit will feature highs and lows, and we can do extensive long-term damage to our teams and to ourselves by overreacting to outliers, particularly when they arise early on.

Before we make critical decisions around personnel, strategy, or larger vision, we need to consider whether we have enough data and information to draw accurate conclusions. It may just take time and repetition for our plans to play out.

2. Our strategies and culture have to survive losing stretches

We frequently look at the elite organizations that appear to have unanimous buy-in and enthusiasm and attribute these as critical components of their success.

But the truest indicator of culture isn’t simply what teams look like when all is going smoothly. It’s how they behave during adversity and in the losing stretches when there’s seemingly little hope.

Culture isn’t just about achievement, accolades and celebration.

It entails maintaining buy-in and belief amid the tough times as well.

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