FROM THE BLEACHERS-781
BY DR. JACK WELCH
When Zero Doesn’t Mean Zero
Last weekend, the stadium thought it had witnessed the final snap. Michigan launched a desperate Hail Mary pass that fell incomplete as the game clock hit zero. The field erupted under the assumption that time had expired and Western Michigan had pulled off an incredible upset victory.
Then instant replay intervened. Officials reviewed the play and discovered that a fraction of a second still remained on the clock, even though the clock showed zero. Officials put 0.1 seconds back on the clock, giving Michigan another play and another opportunity to throw a Hail Mary.
Here lies the confusion. Stadium scoreboards do not display tenths of a second during the final countdown. They transition from one second to zero. Fans, players and coaches rely on that visual cue. When the clock shows zero, we believe the game is over.
Yet the officials had access to something the people watching the game could not see.
That got me thinking about the workplace. Leadership sometimes operates with its own invisible “tenths of a second” rules, expectations or fine-print measurements that employees do not know exist until a retroactive review happens.
What management calls a standard policy; the workforce may experience as a sudden rule change. What leadership considers obvious may not be obvious to the people expected to carry it out. Transparency is only real when everyone is reading the same clock. So how do we prevent this kind of confusion in our organizations?
Publish the hidden metrics. Leadership must make the invisible visible. Standardize what words such as done, complete, deadline and zero mean. Over-communicate system adjustments.
Create fast feedback tracks. Give employees an open channel to identify confusing guidelines and ask questions before misunderstandings become bigger problems.
This is not just a football problem. It is a leadership problem. If the scoreboard says zero, people are going to believe the game is over. If there is a tenth of a second that matters, everyone affected by the outcome needs to understand that before the final buzzer. The same is true in our organizations. If there are “tenths of a second” that matter, our people deserve to know about them before the clock reaches zero.
Thought for the Week, “Good leadership does not hide the tenths. Good leadership makes sure everyone can see the clock.” Steve Crosby, Kansas Sports Hall of Fame NFL Football Coach.
Dr. Jack Welch serves as President of Fort Scott Community College. With a career spanning professional sports, public education, and rural community development, he brings a servant-leader mindset and a passion for building trust-driven cultures that empower people to thrive in the classroom, on the field, and in life. He is also the author of Foundations of Coaching: The Total Coaching Manual.