The room fell somewhat quiet as, during a timeout in the game, one of the TV announcers noted that the crowd at the game was being asked to observe a moment of silence in honor of Arnold "Red" Auerbach, the great basketball coach who had passed away a few months earlier. The announcers then recounted some of Coach Auerbach's accomplishments, including the record-breaking run of championships the Boston Celtics achieved in the 1960s, with him as their head coach.

One of the guests, an O.R. analyst, commented, "That was one guy who knew how to motivate a team to work well together. I wish we had management like that where I work."

The host, who worked at another company in the same field, responded softly, "I'd say you're right, but I'd also say motivation isn't the major issue."

"What do you mean?" the O.R. analyst asked.

"You may not know this," the host recounted, "but I coached high school basketball for a few years, right after I got out of the Army and before I settled into this analytical work. I studied Red Auerbach's book, cover to cover, among other things. And I know your company's management, and I think I see the problem."

"Yes? Go on!" the O.R. analyst urged.

"You remember the disappointing results the U. S. basketball team got in the 2004 Olympics?" the host prompted. He got several nods in response, as some other people nearby had decided to listen, too.

"Well, your company made the same mistake," the host said. "People who don't know basketball think that you can find five players, each of whom scores 30 points a game, and put them all on the court together, and they'll score 150. Find seven more like them, put them on the bench to substitute as needed, and you'll blow the opposition away. Right? And you see how well that worked, right?"

The growing group around the host nodded agreement again.

"Well," the host continued, "the problem is, that Olympic team had almost all cut-to-the-basket shooters. They had one center, a couple of three-point shooters, and — most important — nobody besides the center who could get a lot of rebounds and set picks."

"What's a pick?" one of the other guests asked.

"You stand still while your teammate runs past, close to you, and the guy guarding him can't stay close to your teammate, so your teammate gets open," the coach explained. "That would be a really good time for someone to pass your teammate the ball, and a lot of coaching consists of designing plays to accomplish just that."

"I see," the O.R. analyst affirmed. "But what kinds of plays do most managers design?"

"The point is," the host went on, "Red Auerbach was especially good at understanding role players and assembling them into a working unit. Bill Russell, the Celtics' center, wrote in his autobiography that he didn't think either he or the team would have been nearly as great as they were if he had been under pressure to score a lot. He was a great defensive center and rebounder, and one of the best the game has ever seen at throwing the outlet pass to start a fast break. But if he'd concentrated on scoring, he wouldn't have been nearly as effective at other things he did to help his teammates do better.

"I know your management," the host told the O.R. analyst. "They decided, a few years ago, to recruit an all-star group of analysts. That's about when they hired you."

The O.R. analyst grinned at the compliment.

"But," the host reminded him, "as you've told me before, they didn't hire anyone to keep the copier working, so you guys have to take turns fixing it. They didn't hire anyone to do routine computer programming, so you guys have to do that. They didn't hire a technical writer or a technical editor, so you guys spend a lot of high-priced time writing and editing. You don't like doing those things, so you haven't had much practice doing them, which means someone at half the price could do them in less time. Then you get beaten up about your low productivity, right?"

"You got it!" the O.R. analyst exclaimed.

"That's what you get when management doesn't understand the difference between picking good players and picking a combination of players who will make a good team," the coach summed up. "And one of the ways I evaluate management — and, yes, this is why I didn't accept your company's offer two years ago — is whether they show that they do understand that. Most managements hire people for their capabilities, and push them out because of a bad fit with the other people. Good managements pay more attention to fit in hiring. And so should you, when you're looking for a position. Ask about the mix of people they have, how they think you'd fit in, and what they do to keep the group working smoothly. If you don't get an answer that's clear and sounds well thought out, don't go there!"



Doug Samuelson is a senior analyst at the Homeland Security Institute in Arlington, Va.

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