Insights on Service Inspired From Outside

#2: "To Win" is not a winning strategy

by Gerardo Pelayo, Ph.D.

On December 12, 2021, Atlas F.C. won the Mexican soccer championship for only the second time in club history. This also came after a 70-years dry spell during which the team had been closer to relegation than glory. This result was preceded by a change in ownership the year before, and it was achieved despite having one of the lowest-valued rosters in the league.?

Praise quickly followed. During the celebrations, the team's president was (unsurprisingly) asked to describe how they had worked to win the championship. His initial answer was almost as unexpected as the championship itself:?

"The thing is, we didn't work to win the championship".

After letting the phrase sink in for a few seconds, he explained that when you work to win the championship, you lose sight of many things along the way. But when you work the daily elements (e.g., team cohesion, mental strength, coordinated movements, contingency planning, constant self-critique), then winning the championship becomes a more likely consequence.

Adapting this philosophy to our service organizations:

• Are we focused on identifying and acquiring the best-in-class tools? Or are we actually working to maximize impact from interoperability across systems?
• Are we focused on chasing service demand fulfillment by continuously correcting inventory and staffing levels? Or are we actually working to increase predictive accuracy and converge on a consistent decision-making criteria??
• Are we focused on reporting a KPI above target? Or are we actually working to design the experiences and mature the processes that will most likely lead to that result??

At the end of the day, it would be naive to deny that we must account for the results we achieve. But perhaps we shouldn't forget either that by staying too close to the desired outcomes, we may lack the perspective to enable, incentivize, recognize and execute on the basic elements that need to constantly come together to "win" in service.