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How to Manage Your Team Like the San Antonio Spurs

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The San Antonio Spurs may not have rock star players like LeBron James – they don't have the resources. They might not have the youngest lineup, either (to say the least). And no, they're not flashy.

But the Spurs succeed so often – both on and off the court – they're now considered the top ranked team in the NBA, picked by many to win a fifth championship this year. They must be doing something right.

They do  so much right they could teach business managers a thing or two, says  Mark Lengnick-Hall, a business professor at the University of Texas in San Antonio. 

Mark Lengnick-Hall is a professor and distinguished fellow at UT-San Antonio's College of Business.
Mark Lengnick-Hall is a professor and distinguished fellow at UT-San Antonio's College of Business.

In a conversation with Texas Standard host David Brown, Professor Lengnick-Hall says this year's playoffs show great parity among the teams – just like in business. "If you think about the current marketplace it's highly competitive, especially in the knowledge-based companies and some of the Internet companies, where every edge makes the difference," he says. 

Although Professor Lengnick-Hall admits he's a dyed-in-the-wool Spurs partisan, he also says there are eight distinctive ways San Antonio plays it smart that translate to managing human resources. His tips: 

1.     Build teams around key players, like the Spurs do with their 'Big 3" (Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobli). "Those guys have played together now 13 years. This provides a certain stability," Lengnick-Hall says. "In business, these are the people you invest more in, you pay more for them … these are the people that make things zing so you want to take care of them."

2.     Compliment your key players with support specialists. The Spurs brought on Boris Diaw and Tiago Splitter to add to the mix, giving the team strength and the flexibility to make them key players – or not ­– when necessary. 

3.     Grab the talent others overlook. The Spurs don't have the resources of the Miami Heat. They have to play the recruitment game smarter. Similarly, businesses should look for "diamonds in the rough", recruiting from lesser-known schools. 

4.     Prevent employee burnout. This season, very few Spurs players were on the court for more than 30 minutes a game. Coach Gregg Popovich's strategy of "managing the minutes" helps keep his team healthy, preventing fatigue and injury.  

5.     Create opportunities to develop rising stars. In this year's playoffs, the Spurs bench has been as active as it has been productive. Managers should rotate employees into new assignments – letting others on the team show their stuff, develop new skills, and learn new processes. The team will be stronger for it. 

6.     Mix the older with the younger. The Spurs may be the oldest team in basketball, but they're schooling the upstarts. By rotating in younger players on the roster, the Spurs add energy and enthusiasm. Managers should learn to leverage wisdom with energy.  

7.     Create a spirit of interdependence. The Spurs aren't "hot dogs;" they pass the ball constantly, always looking to make a good shot better. Businesses need to find a goal that brings employees together in a common pursuit of a larger mission or objective.  

8.     Review, restore and upgrade. From season to season, the Spurs make many fine tuning adjustments to shore up weaknesses. Businesses need to assess their own capabilities honestly, and constantly adjust to keep up with the competition.

Download an extended version of the conversation on iTunes for free. 

Copyright 2020 KUT 90.5. To see more, visit KUT 90.5.

David D. Brown is executive producer and host of the award-winning cultural journalism program Texas Music Matters at NPR affiliate KUT-FM in Austin. He is former anchor of the award-winning public radio business program Marketplace, and a veteran public radio journalist. He has reported national and international affairs for Monitor Radio from bases in Atlanta, Boston, London, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.
David Brown
David entered radio journalism thanks to a love of storytelling, an obsession with news, and a desire to keep his hair long and play in rock bands. An inveterate political junkie with a passion for pop culture and the romance of radio, David has reported from bases in Washington, London, Los Angeles, and Boston for Monitor Radio and for NPR, and has anchored in-depth public radio documentaries from India, Brazil, and points across the United States and Europe. He is, perhaps, known most widely for his work as host of public radio's Marketplace. Fulfilling a lifelong dream of moving to Texas full-time in 2005, Brown joined the staff of KUT, launching the award-winning cultural journalism unit "Texas Music Matters."