How to Outwit Your Opponent: What You Can Learn about Success from an NBA Team
The most successful NBA franchise since 1999 is not, unfortunately, my beloved Boston Celtics. It’s not the loathed Los Angeles Lakers. It’s not the formerly LeBron James-led Miami Heat. No, the most successful NBA franchise since 1999 is the San Antonio Spurs.
Over the past fifteen years, the Spurs have won 11 division titles, 6 conference titles and 5 championships. No team has even come close to that type of longevity of success in the same time period. The question is, “Why?” The answer: “Diversity of thought.” Okay, so my heart broke a bit when the Celtics lost the lottery for the first pick in the 1997 draft. This bit of
luck allowed the Spurs to draft the key player of their franchise, Tim Duncan. Yes, the Spurs were able to claim a once-in-a-generation player in Duncan, but the Spurs can credit their franchise’s overall success to their willingness to embrace “diversity of thought.” The concept of “diversity of thought” is that how we are hardwired and what our experiences have been
drives our thoughts and consequently, our actions. Social psychologist Kurt Lewin said, “Behavior is a function of the person and his or her environment.” This concept has been studied widely. A summary of the studies find this: Who we are—our race, age, socio-economic status, experiences in life, culture, and genetic makeup—defines how we see the world. No big surprise there. However, what people do instinctively often harms the level of success of the organizations they work for.
Typically, when organizations hire people for a job, even when going to great extents to be objective, they invariably hire someone just like them. (Don’t take my word for it but you should take Dr. Lauren Rivera’s word. She wrote about the phenomenon in an article for the New York Times, “Guess Who Doesn’t Fit In At Work”.) The San Antonio Spurs have taken the opposite approach. They draft and hire anyone but themselves because they want all the ideas on the table, not just the obvious ones of a similar-minded group.
The leader of the Spurs, Coach Gregg Popovich— or, as many affectionately refer to him, Coach “Pop”—is by no means a warm, cuddly, granddad type. He went to the Air Force Academy and then served for five years in the Air Force. He has a sharp and cutting wit. You might think, with his military background and his acerbic tone that he is rigid in his perspective, but he’s not. To the contrary, Coach “Pop” wants a diversity of ideas around him.
When a team is created in sports, in business or in any organization, you want to be able to have as many different perspectives as possible. Diversity of thought is essential to outwitting your opponent, whether it happens on the hard court, in the boardroom, the courtroom or anywhere else. When we hire people just like us we are narrowing our ability to be successful. Not the San Antonio Spurs. Oh, no. They double down on diversity…and win…and win…and win.