Culture of narrowness

Rumors have circulated for a few months that Barry Larkin is in line to replace Bryan Price as
manager of the Cincinnati Reds. The added bit of news last week was that #11 has been reaching
out to former teammates about coaching for him. Its hard to imagine Larkin would be assembling a
staff if the Reds hadnt already talked to him (or winked) about the manager job.
[No matter what one thinks of the job Bryan Price has done, he and his staff deserve better. Its
disrespectful for the Reds to be talking to replacements during the season while Price is still
employed. And its unseemly (and a worrying sign) for Larkin to allow rumors of his communication
with possible replacements to become public. This could have waited. Add it to the litany of
unprofessional business practices by the Reds baseball people.]
[And Im against the Larkin hire for substantive reasons. I agree with Doug Grays thinking (gigantic
mistake). Larkin has no significant managerial or coaching experience. He has no proven track
record for motivation, organization, patience, game strategy or openness to new ideas. What exactly
is the basis for hiring him other than his Hall of Fame playing career and popularity with Reds fans?
And hes too anti-analytics for my taste.]
But thats not what this post is about.
Its about the Reds culture of narrowness and how it produces serial failure.
When the season comes to its merciful conclusion, odds are that Bob Castellini will fire Bryan Price
and keep Walt Jocketty. Jocketty will announce Larkins hiring (surprise!). Castellini will express
warm, manly feelings about bringing back a hometown hero. Jocketty will say a real hiring process
wasnt necessary because, you know, the obvious guy is obvious.
Sound familiar? Hiring Barry Larkin as the next Reds manager, without seriously and formally
considering other candidates, will fit a long pattern a culture of insular decision-making by the
baseball side of Bob Castellinis organization.

Insularity is a narrowness that occurs when your organization

separates itself from others, when your organization doesnt know or have an interest in new ideas.
Many organizations develop insularity over time. They rely on input and solutions from people in the
organization to the exclusion of outside perspectives. It leads to stale and ineffective thinking. Ask
anyone who studies organizational behavior.
The Reds culture of narrowness dates back at least as far as when Castellini brought in Walt

Jocketty as a special advisor. Jocketty and Castellini were friends when they were both with the
Cardinals organization. When Castellini decided a few months later to replace general manager
Wayne Krivsky, there was no search, just a new title and office for Jocketty.
We saw the same insularity when the Reds fired Dusty Baker. The only person who received an
interview was an internal candidate, Bryan Price.
We also see the narrowness in the recycling of former Cardinals players onto the Reds roster. The
general manager sees a pool of available players that consists largely of those who played for him a
decade ago. That tunnel vision put Jason Marquis in this seasons starting rotation based on a dozen
innings in spring training.

We witness the Reds small-mindedness when the general manager hires assistant general managers
who have lock-step old-school views about building a baseball team views identical to his own. Barry
Larkin apparently fits this pattern.
We see it in the stated preferential treatment given to homegrown players when it comes to
generous contract extensions. One way to describe that is loyalty. Another ischauvinism.
If the Reds hire Barry Larkin like they hired Bryan Price, theyll be repeating the same mistake as
before; another example of their narrow, insular culture.
By firing Bryan Price after just two years as manager, the front office will implicitly be
acknowledging a huge mistake on their part. Sure, theyll point to failures by Price. But the takeaway isnt about Bryan Price; the real lesson is about their myopic process two years ago.

Photo/Al Behrman, Associated Press

As one of the most respected coaches in the game and one who was familiar with the roster, maybe
Bryan Price was the right choice for the Reds in 2014. Other teams seemed eager to hire Price as
their manager if the Reds didnt. But the Reds front office didnt come anywhere close to finding out if
Bryan Price was the best choice. They talked to one person and hired him on the spot. They didnt
take seriously the possibility an outsider could impress them more.
If the Reds bother to take a fair and honest look at how they hired Price (and its another sign of their
dysfunction if they dont), they cant possibly conclude they did it right. If the abbreviated process
produced a bad hire then, its folly to repeat it.
Hiring Barry Larkin is a public relations Band-Aid when life-saving surgery is needed. The owner
probably wont see it this way, but the Hall of Fame shortstop will be a shiny object that distracts

attention from the steps and missteps of the first true rebuilding process of Walt Jockettys career.
In the past decade even more in the last five years weve seen rapid change throughout baseball.
New technology has been developed and adopted that allows us to measure everything from batted
ball exit velocity, to outfielder route efficiency to biomechanical stress on elbows. New thinking
about the game has produced more accurate ways to value players and assemble teams.
Organizations that have embraced this transformation in baseball are beginning to separate
themselves from the ones who havent. The Tigers, Brewers and Mariners have recently fired general
managers to look for replacements more open to modern analytics.For organizations to survive, let
alone succeed, it is essential they be open to new, outside perspectives. Baseball clubs must look at
decisions through the broadest lens possible. Innovative ideas must reach the table for
consideration. Narrowness in viewpoint must be rejected.
Bob Castellini must change the baseball operations culture he has nurtured with the Reds. The
happy news is that different leadership can accomplish that. The current owner isnt going anywhere,
but he can take a lesson from the way his non-baseball operation works and insist on a modern, open
approach from his baseball brain trust.

Leaders set the agenda, determine how an

organization operates, decide what to value, where resources are allocated and how people work
with each other. But leaders who are so narrow to think methods and solutions from 10 years ago
will work today wont get the job done. Thats a tough lesson to learn, but you only need to take a
peek at the NL Central standings, if you dare, to see its importance.
Bob Castellini cant expect the cultural overhaul to take place without replacing the top
executives.Its human nature to resist altering ones behavior even in the face of overwhelming
evidence that says we should. For example, doctors say that only 10 percent of people who have
heart bypass surgery sustain major lifestyle changes for more than a short time.
But while hiring new people might be necessary to fix the problem, its not enough. Theres a
difference between changing employees and changing culture. If the Reds fire Price and hire Larkin,
or even fire Jocketty and hire another old-school GM, nothing meaningful will change. If underlying
norms and procedures arent modernized, new faces wont address the problems that have produced
a poor record of performance.
And tinkering around with tactics wont work. Tactical reforms at odds with the underlying culture
are doomed. If the culture of your baseball team is based on principles from 2005, then saying you
want to acquire more hitters with a high OBP wont happen. If the culture of your baseball team is
Pitching ber Alles, trying to acquire position players in a few trades wont happen. Engrained habits
frustrate efforts to make contrary mid-course tactical adjustments.

Some think the solution is to change the culture of the clubhouse. Whether or not thats a legitimate
issue, this isnt an either-or proposition. Its sloppy to single out the players without looking deeper.
Walt Jocketty has used the word rebootin describing what the Reds need. Well, the word reboot
usually refers to restarting the operating system. The OS of a baseball team is the front office, not
the right fielder. Reboot, indeed.
An Agenda For Culture Change
Cultural change for the Reds starts with hiring a new general manager and assistants who view the
opportunities presented by whats new in baseball with enthusiasm, not something to instinctively
resist. Part of the reboot is hiring men and women who excel at running organizations people who
are familiar with sound, modern communication practices, not old baseball hands who dont
understand the impact of social media.
The Reds need to establish norms that encourage innovation and new ideas. An important part of
that is an upgraded and expanded analytics department that can assimilate and interpret the nonstopmountain of raw dataarriving in every major league front office. That includes adopting modern
approaches to reducing injuries.
To paraphrase the bumper sticker: If you think analytics are expensive, try ignorance.
Then, and only then, a new front office, armed with sophisticated data architecture, should conduct
an open, robust hiring process for the Reds next manager, including Barry Larkin if hes interested.
If Larkin demonstrates hes the best qualified after a rigorous comparison of applications and
interviews, fine. After all, another University of Michigan product, Mike Matheny, who had no
previous managing experience, has kept the St. Louis Cardinals on track.
But before we take too much comfort in the Matheny hire
http://eddie.murphy.mediafetcher.com/news/top_stories/actor_skiing.php with respect to Barry
Larkin, remember there are large differences. The Cardinals were looking for a manager to provide
continuity for a World Series caliber team, not a fresh voice for a club that will lose more than 90
games. The Cardinals conducted a broad search then winnowed the pool down to six final candidates
before choosing Matheny, including two Terry Francona and Ryne Sandberg from outside the
organization.
Instead of recognizing how flawed insularity led to hiring Price in the first place, the Reds appear to
be using the identical process and rushing into a similar mistake. The Reds know even less about
how Larkin will handle MLB players than they did Price. Barry Larkin will give them a warm,
comfortable feeling. So did Bryan Price.
Employment decisions based on comfort provided by insider status have become the Reds culture
under Bob Castellini and his general manager Walt Jocketty. Without fixing that culture
https://www.facebook.com/kurdishactor of narrowness, theyll repeat the same mistakes and revisit
the same old losing ways.
http://redlegnation.com/2015/08/30/the-reds-culture-of-narrowness/