To: Prospective
Employers
From: Grettozied Job Seekers
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game is a book by written by Michael Lewis that was
published in 2003 and turned into a movie in 2011. It is about the
Oakland Athletics baseball team and its General Manager, Billy Beane. The
book/movie is based upon a true story wherein the General Manager of the
Oakland A’s was forced to reinvent his team due to budgetary constraints.
The story begins with an innocent question: How did
one of the poorest teams in baseball, the Oakland Athletics, win so many
games? The story is about a small group of undervalued professional
baseball players and executives, many of whom had been rejected as unfit for
the big leagues, who turned themselves into one of the most successful
franchises in Major League Baseball.
Moneyball is an illustrative quest for something as
elusive as the Holy Grail, something that money apparently can't buy: the
secret of success in baseball, and logically, there is no reason why that
methodology for success cannot be applied to the world of business.
In baseball, the logical places to look for players
would be the front offices of major league teams, and the dugouts, the minor
leagues and perhaps even in the minds of the players themselves. In business,
the logical places to look for talent would be the offices of your competition,
new graduates, the ‘Grey Ghetto’ and perhaps even the minds of the people who
are already working for the company.
What these geek numbers show—no, prove—is that the
traditional yardsticks of success for players and teams are fatally flawed.
Even the box score misleads us by ignoring the crucial importance of the humble
base-on-balls. This information has been around for years, and nobody inside
Major League Baseball paid it any mind.
Billy Beane, the GM for the Oakland A’s had the
second lowest payroll in baseball at his disposal. The book/movie
book records his astonishing experiment in finding and fielding a team that
nobody else wanted. The story of Moneyball is set before the 2002 baseball
season opens, at a time when the Oakland team needed to relinquish its
three most prominent, and expensive, players. The team, who was written
off by just about everyone, then came roaring back to challenge the American
League record for consecutive wins.
In the narrative, Michael Lewis shows us how and
why the new baseball knowledge works and this system can also be applied to
world of business when hiring managers take the time and effort to suss out
talent in the Grey Ghetto [Gretto].
There are four very distinct groups of people
present in the workplace today:
·
Platinum
a.k.a. the Traditionalists (born before 1946)
·
Gold a.k.a.
the Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964)
·
Silver
a.k.a. Generation X (born 1965-1980)
·
Stainless
Steel a.k.a. Generation Y or the Millennium Generation (born after 1980)
The most successful companies have a workforce that
is made up of employees from all four of the groups listed above. When
you have a workforce that consists of four generations and each generation has
different values, different ideas, different ways of communicating, and
different ways of getting things done, you are setting yourself up for success.
To help illustrate the perspective, look at the
following scenario. If you were to ask any member of the above-listed groups to
recall how and where Kennedy died, those from the Platinum and Gold group would
probably say J.F. Kennedy [Jack], 35th President of the United
States was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald on Friday, November 22, 1963 at
12:30 pm. in Dallas, The Silver group of employees would probably say John F,
Kennedy Jr. [John-John], the eldest son of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, American
socialite, lawyer, pilot and editor ‘George’
magazine, died in a plane crash near Martha’s Vineyard on July 16, 1999.
The Stainless Steel Generation would probably say “Kennedy who?”
Currently, there are fewer Platinum and Gold
employees in the workplace than there were a few years ago, but that is not
necessarily a good thing. Even though each generation has a distinct
communication style, attitude, work-ethic, set of behaviours, habits, and
expectations, organizations should endeavour to create systems and processes
that are useful to employees of all ages
In societies past, those unruly whitish colour
hairs crowning the heads of the more senior members of the social order were
viewed as a sign of wisdom; those who displayed them had fought through the
challenges of life and earned their glittering badge of honour.
To help ensure success for your company or
organization, it is critical to search for and hire those who have earned those
silver ribbons. For they are the ones we you can count upon to find
understanding in many of the things that vex you. They are precious.
Many employees believe that the correct way, and
the only way, is their way; despite what they believe, that is not true. In
business, to work effectively and efficiently, to increase productivity, and to
improve performance, organizations and employees need to employ and understand
generational characteristics that each group ‘brings to the table’ to ensure
their continued success.
The ‘Gretto’
[Grey Ghetto] is alive, thriving and closer than you think. Smart employers
are perfectly poised to mine that platinum and also reap all of the benefits.
What do you think?
Noun: GRETTO (grettos, grettoes) gre-tow
- A segregated mode of living or working that results from bias or
stereotyping
- A densely populated pool of unemployed or underemployed
chronologically older job candidates who are still able to contribute in a
positive fashion to the bottom line of any organization
- A particular segment of the population, i.e. job pool of
candidates, that is predominantly occupied by this particular group
because of business culture, social stigma, economic issues, or, because
they have been forced to live under those conditions
Etymology:
‘Gretto’ [Grey Ghetto] - Term was
first coined in 2012 by career and business strategist M. Salvino.
Derived:
Verb: Grettoized
History:
The growth and development of grettos is closely associated with different waves of unemployment
throughout the world.
Additional information:
Grettoyte: A reluctant
inhabitant of the ‘Grey Ghetto’
Grettophobe:
Someone who fears ‘grettoytes’
Grettophobic: Someone who
fears becoming a ‘grettoyte’
Grettoism: Any
cultural, social, economic, political movement or doctrine aimed at achieving
such a society
Grettoist: Anyone who
promotes the cultural, social, economic, political movement or doctrine aimed
at achieving such a society
Copyright © 2012, Career Matters. All Rights
Reserved. Permission to Reprint: This article may be reprinted, provided it appears
in its entirety with the following attribution: Copyright © 2012, Career
Matters. Reprinted by permission of the author, Mary Salvino. “Career Matters”
is a blog authored by Mary Salvino, Senior Consultant for SMART Career Planning.com that is dedicated to
those who are seeking advice on managing their career and future job
opportunities. We welcome readers to share their experiences, post their
comments or ask questions about career related matters. This blog is also
dedicated to those who stand a little taller each time they picked themselves
up after failing and those who gained the wisdom and humility from those
experiences to help others do the same. For any questions or comments that are
better addressed privately, please feel free to e-mail Mary directly at Mary.Salvino@shaw.ca
Posts
