2-28-2012
As the joys of Spring Training begin in Florida and Arizona and hope springs eternal for your favorite team, the process that baseball teams execute has valuable and applicable insight with your team. Although it?s been some years since I?ve personally attended Spring Training, I remember the various drills that covered every situation imaginable as a fascinating process that unfolds to get teams ready for the prize. What drills can a programmer apply to improve talent and team development and increase ratings and revenue? Here are just a few you can throw at your staff.
Baseball has repetitive drills on base-running, bunting, hitting the cut-off man, anything imaginable that sharpens the fundamental basics. Spring training allows for a setting or re-setting of the team agenda, whether it be for curfew rules, clubhouse rules or any overall code of excellence for the driving goal to win. Here are some drills you can run at your own facility to sharpen your talent and get them ready for the big game.
Team Alignment
- Gathering your team together is step one.
- Getting all of the members of the team in the same room builds a spirit and shared goal for the mission.
- Sometimes a new rule or standard needs to be emphasized.
- Overall the opening Spring Training team meeting can set the tone for the entire season.
Up Front Expectations are Key.
- Have a detailed meeting that emphasizes, to every team member, what?s expected and how they can perform at the highest level.
- Explain to your air talent team the detailed nuances of whatever your ratings measurement system is and how their content needs to stack up to succeed.
- Give them a deeper understanding of what the measurement is and how it?s used for the advertiser community to earn the station revenue.
- Give your team an up to the minute understanding of how they are performing and what they need to accomplish to find greater success.
- Be as detailed an specific as you can with tools from Arbitron and Media Monitors that helps to identify success and also curtail bad habits.
Create Fun Drills to Improve Execution and Your Overall Talent Batting Average.
- Critique on air talent from the competition as a group/team exercise.
- Have an improvisation session to hone the talent ability to think on their feet.
- Develop some emergency ?what if? plans as a team exercise.
- Have a talent session specifically devoted to the ?art of the tease.?
- Have a talent session devoted to the best way to execute ?live reads.?
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Buzz Knight is the Vice President of Program Development for Greater Media and he can be reached at bknight@greatermediaboston.com. Knight was named among ?Best Programmers? by Radio Ink Magazine in 2007 and 2010. He has served on the programming subcommittee of the National Association of Broadcasters(NAB) and is currently a member of the Arbitron Radio Advisory Council and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) COLRAM Committee.
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