[MUSIC PLAYING]
RANJAY GULATI: So the first T is Talent.
At one level, you might say there's a market for talent.
And everybody has all the same information.
They all go out and scout it.
And it's a pretty efficient market.
But there seems to be something about smelling and sniffing
out a great player.
And that sniffing out is where you
are saying you can make somebody way better than they actually
are.
You see the potential in them, not just what
they've accomplished.
The market price is our accomplishment.
So if you see an ace pitcher, there's a bidding war going on.
You're going to pay a market or above market
rates depending on how many people want that player.
But it's about sniffing out talent that nobody else sees.
And that's seeing potential in talent.
If you think about Bobby Cox and the Atlanta Braves,
so one of the first things Bobby Cox does
is he teams up with the head of personnel, Paul Schneider,
and says, we're going to revamp how we find players.
And right on their opportunity spaces,
Todd Van Poppel, one of the ace pitchers.
And he passes on him, saying no.
And they find this unknown, Chipper Jones.
And the rest is history.
They go on to win 14 division titles over the next 14 years.
Extraordinary outcome, all driven by Bobby's ability
to smell out talent.
We can look at Pete Carroll, the coach of the Seattle Seahawks,
taking Russell Wilson when nobody else wants him.
So here in New England, we have Tom Brady, who was way down,
I think, 199 on the pick.
But they saw something in him and gave him a chance.
They see potential where others might not see potential.
It's not that can this person be better?
It's can I make them better?
Do I see the opportunity that I feel
I have the confidence that I can take this person
and make them great?
It's their ability to say, this person will really
fit my organization, will really resonate with me,
and I see the opportunity to take this person where
I don't think others can.
It's not just hiring individual players.
Sir Alex Ferguson, the former coach of Manchester United,
always said, "I'm not here to build a team.
I'm not here to win a season.
I'm here to build a winning club."
So I have a time horizon.
I want to see the chemistry among the players,
that they work well together as a team.
How do I groom players early, get them early in soccer?
You see a lot of that, getting players very, very early,
when they're very young, grooming them,
but also making sure that they are part
of the chemistry of the team.
Talent really can be understood at three levels.
The first level is, what are you capable of doing today?
Are you talented today?
Have you worked yourself to be an immediate contributor
to our collective effort?
What are you working in the door?
The second piece of talent is, what's your potential?
How much further can you go?
And are you willing to go?
Some people are talented players,
don't want to push any further.
They don't have the work ethic.
They don't have the oomph in them to want to get better.
Related to that is, can I as a coach
connect with you such that I can help you unlock that potential?
The third layer is, what about you and the team?
Are you going to really gel with the team?
Are we going to be able to work well and achieve
our potential as a collective?
And how well would you connect with the team?
So let's apply this to the business context.
Absolutely, I think what ends up happening is who do we hire?
We hire people on accomplishment, not so much
on potential.
It's really hard to gauge potential.
We miss out on this idea that we can shape and develop
people and help them live up to their potential,
finding those diamonds in the rough.
And then the last part is, to what extent
are they going to be able to fit our culture,
they're going to fit our team?
Are they a team player or an individual contributor?
So I think it's important to understand and think
about talent in these three different layers,
the same way in sports and the same way in business.