Book Review: The Numbers Game

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Bill Petti

Alan Schwarz’s The Numbers Game is an indispensable look at how the numbers that have come to define the game of baseball came to be.  The book is less about the hallowed numbers that even casual fans can identify; Aaron’s 755 home runs, DiMaggio’s 56 game hit-streak, Nolan Ryan’s 5714 strikeouts, Cy Young’s 511 wins, Pete Rose’s [...]

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The Individual Utility of Incompetence

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Bill Petti

There are many reasons why organizations (government, businesses, etc) grow dysfunctional and stagnant.  One major reason lies with the promotion and retention of less capable workers.  There have been a number of studies that explored this dynamic (for example, The Peter Principle, which theorizes that people are promoted as long as they are competent, which [...]

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What gets measured (and valued) gets done

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Bill Petti

Most everyone has heard Peter Drucker’s famous dictum “What gets measured gets done”, the implication being that unless specific behaviors and outcomes are measured they aren’t likely to be given much attention.  In this month’s HBR, Dan Ariely suggests that this notion of measurement-driving-behavior explains many of the problems with current CEO behavior and suggests [...]

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Lessons Learned from Guilty Pleasures

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Bill Petti

Jen Prout of The Full Belmonty recently posted about the various organizational and management lessons to be learned by watching CBS’s new reality show, “Undercover Boss”.  Each week, the show follows a CEO as they go undercover, posing as a new hire or trainee, working at various locations.  The basic plot is that the CEO’s [...]

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