NBC Sports and The Cyclical Nature of Sports; Finding The New “Desire Path”

This time of year can end up being the grind for those who work in team sports. The cyclical nature of the business of games, from college to the highest level of pro sports ends up being rinse and repeat, regardless of whether the work being done is achieving the goal od growing personally and professionally.

The past few weeks I have seen and heard a lot of “that’s how we do it,”  from people of every age on the team side. Check the box, move on, just get through the next step, survive and advance.

And I think that’s understandable but I chalk it up in the L category. Now it’s easier to do things that way, it’s harder to constantly be learning, trying new things or shaking the status quo.

A recent conversation I had with a college administrator who was brought in to rethink how this major school does their storytelling work was a great example. He asked one of his young, talented people how he spent his day and the person pointed to voluminous notes being done for an early season baseball game, or for a midseason women’s basketball game. When he asked if anyone was using the hours of work, the person frowned and said he didn’t know. That’s the way we do things, the person said.

When he again asked if the person had spent any time looing to use AI as a tool to speed through work that could be reviewed, or if anyone had talked about less writing and more short-form video work which could not only reach a new audience but could also provide valuable career development skills, the answer was “No, he didn’t have time.” So was he spending his time wisely to grow and try different things, or was he just getting through the day? The answer was the latter.

It’s easy to do rinse and repeat, it’s hard to try new things.

This past weekend there was a great story in the New York Times (you can read it here), on desire paths, and it fit well with these cyclical stories of sometimes lack of curious learning and growth in our industry.

From the story…

A desire path or line can be any route formed outside of an official walkway, snow-covered or not. Think of a trail of worn grass beside a concrete walkway, or a dirt-trodden path cutting through a lawn. They’re found in college campuses, suburbs and cities across the world. The paths are carved by walkers as more convenient, or simply desired, ways to get from point A to point B than what was laid out by urban planners or developers.

In short, we should always be finding desire paths in whatever we do. I found another great example of a desire path in my visit to NBC Sports thriving hub of activity in Stamford, Connecticut for the Winter Olympics. Walking into the building on a cold Thursday morning I was met by my friend and colleague Seth Rubinroit, and as soon as you went through security, you FELT the Desire PATH CHANGING. Here were literally hundreds of mostly young people…editors, loggers, researchers and the like…almost sprinting through the halls as The Games of Milan and Cortina were going on. We talked about the innovative ways storytelling and media were literally changing and adjusting on the fly; clipping highlights, listening for unpredictable story lines, expanding narratives about everything from food to relationships to mental wellness to unbelievable athletic accomplishments and failures; and all being done with zeal and joy and a vibe that was palpable.

Now there could be rinse and repeat and check the box. After all, work flows need to be kept consistent and results need to be documented. However this was an environment where creativity was thriving and new paths, like those in the changing New York City snow, were being altered by choice every day.

The point is that in a world of “new and improved” where we have to prove worth both to ourselves and others sometimes even more than we should, creating new desire paths is healthy on every level. The senior leaders learn about what’s coming, those on the rise implement their ideas and also get a glimpse of institutional knowledge and we all grow together. We can’t throw rinse and repeat away, but we have to balance it with wonder, curiosity and a desire to try the new, just like those rising stars in Stamford.

Same old has a place, but without a new desire path it gets old and doesn’t help us grow on any level. In the dead of winter maybe we don’t always see that growth, but it is the time to seed, look and plant ideas. They can sprout with the encouragement we need, and the push to change from every level.

That’s the way we should do it.