Pastors, is your vision for the church gaining little traction? Business leaders, does your vision seem to continually stall? Coaches, can you never create a healthy culture with a common purpose? There may be a very practical reason why.
There is often a border war happening at your organization between what is good and what is best. Let me explain.
Major League Baseball recently released some very interesting statistics. Pitchers throw over half their pitches, 51% in fact, just outside the strike zone hoping to entice batters to chase bad pitches. Even if a batter is able to hit a pitch outside the strike zone, they only have .150 batting average this year when doing so. Conversely, batters are hitting .283 when hitting pitches inside the strike zone.
Games are decided by the territory around the strike zone. So to is your organization.
Here is the application. 27% of swings by major league hitters are for pitches outside the strike zone. This is known as a “Chase Rate” – how often are hitters chasing a bad pitch. The game’s best player, Mike Trout, only swings a pitches outside the strike zone 17% of the time.
17% shows the elite discipline Trout has. The Chase Rate ultimately determines your effectiveness as a hitter.
Pastors, coaches, and business leaders, you have a Chase Rate as well. How many “good ideas” are you needlessly chasing vs. how many “great ideas” ideas in the center of your vision plate are you swinging at?
This ability to reject good ideas for great ones is an indication of your discipline as a leader.
Seemingly good ideas can erode your vision? Ideas from members or your organization which would cause your vision to be altered or changed need to be ignored. Don’t swing at them.
Also, have you ever hired someone because he/she seemed good enough and you were desperate to fill a position? It probably did not take long before you realized what a mistake this was. This is another example of swinging at a bad pitch.
For vision to gain traction you need to swing at only good pitches. You need to be a discipline leader with a low Chase Rate.
Only chase the best ideas and hire the best people.
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