Innovation, Pete Carroll and... Baseball?

My first cell phone was purchased for emergency uses only. I had it in the car just in case anything happened during a Spring Break road trip between Dallas and Nashville. At the time, it provided a sense of security. These days, it’s my lifeline to everything.

As Apple celebrates 50 years in existence and five decades of innovations, it’s not hard to see the impact of Apple’s outside the box thinking.

But that’s not always what innovation looks like. Sports proves it.

More specifically, Pete Carroll proved that to me. Pete is known as one of the greatest college coaches of all time, but when the Seattle Seahawks hired him in 2010 there was some skepticism related to how his high energy, fun-loving approach would translate in the NFL. For me personally, as the Seahawks sideline reporter, I didn’t know what to expect. Pete was a wild card. Up to that point, I only had experience around old school coaches, both in my professional career and as an athlete throughout high school.

Old school coaches took practice very seriously. It was a chance to toughen up, prepare for the intensity of game day and work without distractions. In my experience, practice was something you got through so you could get to the fun on game day.

That wasn’t Pete’s approach. Pete believed you could have fun and do great work all at the same time. It’s why the Seahawks started blaring music during practice. Not only did this catch me off guard the first time I experienced it, but I was also certain that someone was going to stop practice and force everyone to run sprints because guys were dancing. They were having fun. They were smiling, joking and laughing, which is exactly what Pete wanted.

Pete Carroll proved that fun is a leadership quality. He became the winningest coach in franchise history and proved that you can have fun and win. He also proved that innovation doesn’t always include fanfare. Sometimes it sneaks up on you.

Pete’s influence in the NFL is obvious. His approach to practice is modeled throughout the NFL. It has also shown up across Major League Baseball.

Turns out Spring Training practices are more energic and fun when there’s music. I saw that firsthand as a member of the Seattle Mariners television broadcast team. Which is why I wasn’t surprised when saw this headline in The Athletic: Did Pete Carroll start a baseball trend? How music became a spring training staple.

It is now a common practice for baseball teams to crank up a playlist in spring training all because Pete Carroll was willing to rethink high performing environments.

That makes Pete an innovator and he didn’t do it by reinventing the wheel or creating a new piece of technology. All he did was hit “play.”

Here’s what this means for us - Your most innovative idea might be a small action. It might be an obvious decision. For example, maybe it’s rethinking the format of your regularly scheduled staff meetings. Maybe you don’t schedule meetings on certain days of the week. Perhaps it’s introducing an element of fun with your team or reconsidering the definition of business casual.

Innovation doesn’t have to happen on the scale of Apple to make an impact.

Your innovative solution might not take a lot of effort. It might not come with any fanfare. It might also lead to a legacy that helps other people succeed and win.