How the NBA Season and Your Business is All About the Big Picture
Every NBA team’s season is full of wins and losses and strategic decisions, but that win or loss doesn’t mean the same thing for every team. The right decision for one team might be the wrong decision for another. That’s because not every team has the same goal.
For example, the Golden State Warriors want an NBA championship—anything else, and they will be disappointed. Other teams, like the New York Knicks, are more focused on building their team through the draft and free agency. They have their eye on the future. That difference in goals explains why the Warriors brought in another all-star this off-season, while the Knicks traded away a major asset. For the Knicks, losing a few extra games this season is OK, if that means getting a top pick in the next season’s NBA Draft.
So is a single loss, a single mistake, a single instance of drama a disaster for a team? Maybe not. It depends on the big picture.
The big picture—your overall situation plus your long-term goals—is how a team puts each game in context, plus it’s also the basis of long-term strategic thinking. It’s how a team becomes about more than just playing today’s game.
At my company, we have our bad days, our lost deals, our self-doubt, and other drama that we can’t control but have to deal with. And there are times I can get caught up in that. It happens. But then I remind myself that the season isn’t over—and we can look forward to having a lot of seasons! It’s not just about this one game, in other words.
It’s not that the day-to-day details aren’t important, they’re very important, it’s just equally important not to get lost in the weeds. Keeping an eye on the big picture is how we get through temporary losses, and it’s also how we employ strategic thinking, continually re-evaluating and refining our long-term goals. I did a refinement some years ago when we doubled down on content creation and marketing for others; today we have an entire marketing team with many great partners.
Here’s the thing; even the best teams run into problems—the Warriors of this decade, the Los Angeles Lakers of the last decade, the Chicago Bulls of the 90’s, and so on. Sooner or later, problems happen to everybody. The best teams, year after year, don’t get that way by playing flawlessly every single game—they get to be great by having a long-term plan and sticking with it, and not getting distracted by the frustrations and the disappointments of the day-to-day.
At my company, we aim to be a great team. Do you? If so, you’re going to have to keep your eye on…
The Big Picture.
Are you thinking about the big picture? Consider starting a content library. We’d love to help!