Why Stories?
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Why do we tell ourselves stories? Why do some stories "resonate"? I was watching moneyball tonight and it's shown as a baseball manager struggles to field a team that can win a world series with a quarter the payroll of the to teams. His thesis is that they need a new way of finding players. Players that are good but are overlooked by other teams. There are callbacks to his failed attempt at playing professionally. He comes across an unlikely young, nerdy, introverted upstart who has a different way of looking at baseball. Together they devise a plan to upend how baseball players are evaluated.
Along the way they meet resistance from the player scouting org and the team manager. Through trials and tribulations they ultimately prevail, building a winning team that is competitive with some of the top teams in the MLB.
That all sounds great, it's the classic David vs Goliath with a little whiz kid mixed in. But when I read the Wikipedia page it tells a different story. One where the previous GM trained the current manager using some of these unconventional techniques. They hire a young economist to help them, but they already know about sabermetrics. It's also unclear if there is conflict with the recruiting org or the manager like it's portrayed in the movie.
Telling a story like that is less interesting, but probably closer to the truth. Why do we do that? What is the value in making up a story that didn't happen the way we tell it?
Also, how did the people who were living those moments experience them? Did they feel like they were David vs. Goliath? Did they feel they were revolutionizing baseball?
In was probably a lot of just getting up and doing the work. I would guess they didn't feel revolutionary every time they came into work. And they probably questioned if what they were doing was the right way, especially when results were going against them.
Is this what leaders do? Do they tell stories to their employees? It motivates people, gives their life meaning. I'm not saying leader shouldn't or that it's manipulative. Our senses already filter reality for us. Our senses interpret stimula. We experience a world different from the actual world already. Why not tell stories?