Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

Sep 20, 2021

Published in 2003, Michael Lewis' Moneyball charts efforts by the Oakland Athletics baseball team to use analytics and statistical methods to assemble a competitive team on a comparatively small budget.

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross G, Owen, Ross D and Nahdia share their thoughts on the book and it's relevance to L&D and HR professionals. We discuss:

  • how General Manager Billy Beane transformed his team's approach to scouting talent
  • the impact of statistics and subjective judgement on decision making
  • the challenges inherent with implementing a statistical approach to L&D.

Show notes

Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, is available from all good booksellers.

Some of the criticism directed at Moneyball is covered in The Atlantic: theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/09/the-many-problems-with-moneyball/245769/

For details of Mind Tools' 77-page workbook, 'Becoming a Positive Leader' - free to new members - visit MindTools.com.

In 'What I Learned This Week', Owen discussed potential UI improvements to the Tesco loan calculator: chrisannetts.com/blog/tesco-loan-calculator 

Nahdia discussed the colour of Sesame Street's Big Bird across different cultures: buzzfeed.com/natashajokic1/big-bird-international-colors 

And Ross G revealed that he'd had a most epic morning listening to Hidden Citizens: hiddencitizens.com/ 

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit emeraldworks.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.

Connect with our speakers

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter: