Opening Day Wasn’t Moving

I’ve loved baseball for as long as I can remember.

And for the past 22 years, my wife and I have been Braves fans. Our daughter could name the lineup before she could read.

No apologies.

So yes, when I read about BravesVision in the Sports Business Journal, I came for the baseball. But I stayed for the leadership lesson.

In the piece, Braves President & CEO Derek Schiller described BravesVision as more than a broadcast shift. The Braves pulled together a direct-to-distributor TV network launch in roughly 30 days - something that would normally take 12 to 18 months -because Opening Day was not moving. The market changed and the opportunity was real. The Braves had to act.

That kind of deadline does something to a leadership team.

It removes the luxury of endless options. It forces decisions. Not vague decisions. Not “let’s keep discussing this” decisions.

Permanent, inspiring decisions that create focus, unlock movement, and tell the team:

This is the field we are playing on.

What stood out most to me was how they named the work. They did not appear to organize only around functional silos. They named the major areas where outcomes had to happen:

Production. Distribution. Advertising sales. Programming. Streaming.

That matters because high-performing teams do not just ask, “Who is responsible?”

They ask:

1. What outcome are we trying to create?
2. What decision is blocking movement?
3. Who owns the next play?
4. What must be true before the deadline arrives?

That is where meetings become decision engines. That is where motion becomes momentum. That is where the CEO stops carrying every unresolved question in their head like a second inbox.

And this is not just for baseball teams or media companies.

It applies whether you are building movie sets, producing festival experiences, scaling a construction company, running drywall crews across the Southeast, or leading a founder-led business where too many decisions still find their way back to your desk.

The work is the same: Name the field of play. Define the outcomes. Make the decisions permanent enough to create traction. Assign ownership close enough to the work that the next move happens without waiting for the founder to bless it. I'm grateful to be able to bring this approach to my clients and those straining from growth who want to be better for themselves and their company.

The play has to move from the dugout to the field.

That is the real power - and discipline - of the 3D engine in a leadership team:

Discover. Discuss. Decide.

Not as a framework on a wall.

As muscle memory. Because when every decision waits for the owner, the business slows down. When the right decisions move into the field of play, the whole team starts playing faster.

One Reframe

The problem is rarely that your team does not care. The problem is usually that the decision is still sitting in the dugout.

It has been discussed. It has been circled. It has been admired from several angles.

But it has not yet moved into the field of play.

A leadership team does not gain speed because everyone works harder.

It gains speed when the right decisions are framed as outcomes, owned enough, and permanent enough for the team to move without waiting for the founder to touch the ball again.

Two Questions Worth Sitting With

1. Where are we still keeping options open when the business needs us to make the call?
2. What decision keeps finding its way back to my desk because we have not made ownership clear enough?

Sit with those for a few minutes before your next leadership team meeting.

Just long enough to notice where the same conversation keeps returning in a different uniform.

Three Small Moves This Week

1. Name the field of play. Pick one stuck issue and define the real outcome. Not the department. Not the task list. The outcome.
2. Identify the blocking decision. Ask the team: “What decision, if made today, would let the next play happen?”
3. Move ownership closer to the action. Decide who owns the next move, what they are allowed to decide without you, and when the team will know whether it worked.

That is how decision-making becomes muscle memory.

Not because the founder disappears. Because the team learns how to play.

And occasionally, when the timing is right, the deadline is real, and the team knows exactly what game it is playing…

You get more than a launch.

You get lift. Go Braves.

David Aferiat

Clarity Sommelier™

Helping CEOs turn growth into freedom, not friction