I hope you all remembered the cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving, I'd hate to think my writing effort was in vain....As I write this (which will be last night when I publish), Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, a.k.a. "The Three Kings" are getting ready for the tip-off in Cleveland. Since I grew up in the Cleveland area, I thought this might be a good blog topic this week, even if it was only for my own entertainment. Now, I'm not here to rant about James leaving Ohio (we all do, you know--leave, that is), as most of my "How dare you take something away from Northeast Ohio!" venom was spent on Art Modell when he took our beloved Browns to Baltimore.But I digress, I really do have a point to make that is related to systems thinking and stuff.Here's my question: Is the current performance of the Miami Heat a case where you put highly optimized parts together in hopes of a super whiz-bang system of a team (only to doom that system), or is it simply the natural "forming" and "storming" we all talk about in the cool team workshops we offer?Let me present some statistics to you (wooo...real numbers....):The table below shows the average points per game for each of the Kings, this season to date and last: 2009-20102010-2011Lebron James29.723.4Dwayne Wade26.621.3Chris Bosh24.017.9Total80.362.6 If you were to step back in time and look at the possible combination of the three on a team, having the ability to score 80+ points a game would have made you lick your chops as a General Manager. And so, you work your magic and make the trio happen. Then comes the first 19 games of the season of 2010-2011 and you were hoping to see a phenomenal record like 15-4 but sit at 11-8. All three Kings have lower average points per game so far and their average total is down by 22%.From a systems perspective, this "eat-your-heart-out-ESPN" analysis is merely a metaphor (for the sake of this blog) that the late Russell Ackoff might have appreciated. Or ignored. Taking the best players and putting them together on the same team does not create the best team you can possibly have. Instead of "The Three Kings" their nickname might be "Three's Company". Highly optimized components sub-optimize the system. The points difference might be evidence of this perspective.Or....is their so-so performance just a part of the natural cycle of teams? You know, they "formed" - being nice to each other, insisting that the others shoot the ball instead of themselves and bringing each other hot cocoa after the games.This is followed by the "storm" stage where they pull Dwayne's hair, trip Lebron as he is going down the court and put Ex-lax in Chris' hot cocoa. This is where good managers need to assert their role and guide the team through this rough and tumble stage. Maybe this is why Erik Spoelstra is being questioned as the best person to coach the Miami Heat by the team itself!What do you think? Is it a systems dynamics issue? And if so, what does the sub-optimization of the parts look like? Or is it a team cycle problem? Who can take this team from "storm" through "norm" up to "perform"?And if you are reading this and happen to be from Cleveland, just go to your happy place... or Myrtle Beach, whichever makes it all better!
