If you’re a Chicago Cubs baseball fan, to say that this past weekend, when the Cubs clinched the National League Championship Series to advance to their first World Series was a moment you’ve been waiting for a long time, would be a bit of an understatement, but what does Chicago Cubs baseball have to do with your Workers’ Compensation program? I’m Michael Stack, with Amaxx, and today I’m going to be telling you a personal Chicago Cubs baseball story, and I think you’ll be a bit surprised about how the lesson can apply to your Workers’ Compensation program.
Steve Bartman Game – October 14, 2003
Lets’ go all the way back thirteen years ago, October 14, 2003. I was single at the time, and living on the North Side of Chicago within walking distance to Wrigley Field. It was an exciting year. The Cubs were doing well, they made it to the playoffs, they won the divisional series, and they were up three games to two in the National League Championship Series. Some friends and I decided to get tickets to that game six, which is the infamous Steve Bartman game. Our seats were in the upper deck of left field. Basically directly behind Steve Bartman, and he was sitting right along the field’s edge. We had a great vantage point to see the entire stadium as well as outside the stadium, both Waveland and Sheffield.
Mark Pryor was on the mound and it was an extraordinarily exciting game. The second inning. We’re winning. Third inning, we’re winning. Fourth inning, we’re still winning. The excitement is building. The excitement is building, you could see on the streets behind the stadium, Waveland and Sheffield, more people start building, more people start coming. More and more people start coming. It’s the beginning of the fifth inning, the sixth inning, the seventh inning. The excitement is building, the energy is palpable in the stadium because the feeling is we’re going to finally do it today.
Of course we know what happened next. The foul ball was hit into Steve Bartman’s seat. He interfered with the ball, Moises Alou goes crazy, and the interesting part, and here’s the lesson, is the expectation changed in that instant. The energy in the entire stadium which was so high, immediately left the stadium. The fans felt it, and the players felt it. The very next play, was a routine ground ball, should have been a double play ball, we were still winning three runs to one at that point, and could have gotten us out of the inning to go on to win the game, but of course, Alex Gonzalez made the error, the Marlins scored eight runs that inning, we lost game six and we lost game seven. it wasn’t until thirteen years later that the Cubs finally clinched that National League Pennant.
Never Underestimate the Power of Expectations
Here’s the lesson. Never underestimate the power of expectations. When your employee gets injured, what is their expectation for what’s going to happen at your company. I want to give you some how to’s here. When you’re at the hire, when you talk to them about your program, you need to give them an employee brochure. This is at the hire as well as at time of injury. You talk to them about this is how you do it at your organization. You do steps one, two , three, four and five. You give them that employee brochure, you drive them to medical treatment, to the doctor’s office, or to the hospital.
The supervisor drives them, and while you’re driving them, you are talking to them about what’s going to happen. You give them the employee brochure, this is the expectation of what’s going to happen. Day after, you give them a phone call. How are things going, assess their attitude, get some valuable claims management information and then you do weekly meetings with them doing the same thing. Assessing their attitude, answering questions, getting valuable claims management information and demonstrating care.
Set & Meet Expectations
Setting the expectation and then meeting the expectation. Do not underestimate, as in the case with the Chicago Cubs, the power of expectation. If you’re watching this video somewhere other than http://reduceyourworkerscomp.com, go ahead and go to that website, sign up to receive a lot more free information of how to reduce your Workers’ Compensation costs. Again, I’m Michael Stack with Amaxx. Remember your success in Workers’ Compensation is defined by your integrity. Be great!
Author Michael Stack, Principal, COMPClub, Amaxx LLC. He is an expert in workers compensation cost containment systems and helps employers reduce their work comp costs by 20% to 50%. He works as a consultant to large and mid-market clients, is co-author of Your Ultimate Guide To Mastering Workers Comp Costs, a comprehensive step-by-step manual of cost containment strategies based on hands-on field experience, and is founder of COMPClub, an exclusive member training program on workers compensation cost containment best practices. Through these platforms he is in the trenches on a working together with clients to implement and define best practices, which allows him to continuously be at the forefront of innovation and thought leadership in workers’ compensation cost containment. Contact: mstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.
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