March Madness: Business Foul or Huddle Moment

The excitement of March Madness is in the air! Mixed with bracket picks and game schedules, around this time every year, I also start seeing stories about the business costs of March Madness in terms of lost hours and distracted employees. While I understand those calculations and how some disciplines may be impacted, I view March Madness with a slightly different business lens.

First, as an assist. I enjoy talking the upsets, the rise of the underdog and those buzzer-beaters with employees. Sports can bind us across all layers and areas of the organization and connect us past the regimen of our day-to-day work. Today we even had our GE Lighting employees take a timeout to build their own brackets and do it with pizza, good comradery and a little friendly competition.

Second, as a playbook. The height of sports reminds me of the parallels between sports and business and the spirit we should apply to our work every day.

To read Bill's top 5 basketball plays for business, click here.