In 2002, the Oakland A’s spent $40 million on player salaries. The New York Yankees spent about three times that amount and three and a half times as much as the lowest team that year. Baseball has a luxury tax, but it does little to keep teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and Angels from spending amounts that small market clubs could never dream of while still making a profit. (On a side note, the problem continues: The Yankees spent nearly 10 times more than the Florida Marlins in 2008.)

Moneyball tells the story of A’s attempt to win inspite of the inequity of team salaries. Through the research of a night security guard in Kansas, A’s GM Billy Beane focused on different success indicators. This lead Beane to draft and sign players that no one else wanted and trade players other teams valued that he didn’t. Beane and the A’s executives weren’t asking if a .300 batting average was still a good batting average. They were asking if batting average was as good an indicator of success as other statistics. Are walks valued enough? Is a player who makes a diving catch a better fielder than the one reads the ball better off the bat? Do RBIs matter at all? Are closes over-valued? How can we exploit all of this?

For the baseball fan, Moneyball is a fascinating read about how to win games in the modern era. Moneyball isn’t about redefining success. This book is about reevaluating the way you achieve success. Baseball fan though I am, I took a lot more away from the book than the importance of OBP. It got me asking questions about achievement indicators in business (and ministry). What things point toward a successful employee? Are policies based on this? Do we hire based on this? Do we compensate based on this? Do we discipline based on this? Do we fire based on this?

All the questions this can bring up for you boil down to two things. In my context:

1. What conventional wisdom is actually folly?
What thing is traditionally valued in my context that has no bearing on my success or failure? What measure am I using that doesn’t really accurately reflect how well I’m doing?

2. Knowing this, how can I use it to my advantage?
What should I be valuing instead? How can I change what I measure?

I’ll leave an idea or two in the comments. Please add yours.