What Organizations Can Learn from Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat’s Success

I remember the headlines in October 2018: “Jimmy Butler went to T-Wolves practice, crushed, taunted teammates and management, left” and “Jimmy Butler talks 'brutally honest' practice, says relationship with Wolves is ‘not fixed’”. Within a few weeks, Jimmy Butler’s reputation changed from gritty 2-way player (for the non-sports folks, this means Butler plays great on offense and defense) to organizational wrecking ball who needed to be shipped to another team. Within 1 month, the Minnesota Timberwolves traded Butler to the Philadelphia 76ers. 

Fast forward 2 years, Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat are 2 wins away from playing in the NBA Finals. Butler’s teammates and coaches rave about his leadership, teamwork, grit, and they’re confident that he can lead them to a championship.

The Miami Heat’s success has been a surprise to all but the Miami Heat. I’ve watched this story develop for 2 years now. Here are 2 takeaways from this story that all organizations can learn from.

1. Align your organization around a few core values

All organizations have a culture, a way of working together and doing things. However, not all those things are at the core of your success and many times organizations don’t scrutinize their culture to tease out what is valuable. Whether your core values come about organically or they are prescribed by the leadership, every successful organization has core values. I define core values as strict principles that are embedded in a person/organization’s approach, processes, and decision making.

The Miami Heat seem to have identified the core values that make them successful and aligned the team to them. In my opinion, the Miami Heat’s core values include the following: Honest Communication, Resilience, and Knowing Your Role.

2. Hire people who share your organizational values

Most skills can be taught but getting your employees to buy into a company’s values is no small feat. While talent is extremely important in basketball, talent isn’t everything. The Timberwolves were talented with Butler and two other stars, Karl-Anthony Towns (KAT) and Andrew Wiggins (Wigs), in their starting 5; however, they could not succeed because the players and organization did not have shared values that guided them. Jimmy Butler understood that and in his interview with Rachel Nichols he shared what many avid NBA fans saw: 

I'm not the most talented player. Who's the most talented player on our team? KAT. Who's the most god-gifted player on our team? Wigs. Wigs got the longest arms, the biggest hands, can jump the highest, can run the fastest. But like who plays the hardest? Me. I play hard. I play really hard. I put my body on the line every damn practice. Every day in the games. That's my passion.

- Jimmy Butler on 10/10/2018

On the other hand, the Miami Heat knew their values, led their actions with those values, and knew that Butler would be a good fit for the team because he also shared those values of Honest Communication, Resilience, and Knowing Your Role. They tried to trade with the Timberwolves for Butler but were unsuccessful. A year later, they got their man in a trade with Philly.

So here we are, a few weeks away from crowning a new NBA Champion, and Butler and his team are still on the path to glory. Nobody expected them here. If they move on to the Finals, they’ll likely face the Los Angeles Lakers and be the underdogs. Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat will tune out the noise, follow their values, and give it their best shot.

Photos by Christina Morillo and Juno Jo