Applying a Dozen Yogi-isms to Business, Leadership, and Organizational Culture

Issue #202

The following is an article that I posted earlier today to LinkedIn. Since it is a crossover between my work as a researcher in human resources, and my love of baseball, I figured I’d cross-post it to my readers here at Now Taking the Field.

For a baseball fanatic like me, watching the 2024 World Series between the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers has been great fun so far.  While it can be nice to have an underdog, small-market surprise team take on a big-spending elite squad, this year’s matchup is equally compelling:

• The Dodgers (98-64) had the best regular season record in the National League, while the Yankees (94-68) had the best record in the American League.

• This is the 12th championship matchup of these two storied franchises—the most of any two opponents (Yankees vs. Giants is second at seven.)

• That said, they haven’t faced each other in the World Series since 1981. (The Dodgers won that year in six games.)

• The 2024 Dodgers and Yankees have several of the biggest stars in the game today, including Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and others for LA; and Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Gerrit Cole, and others for NY.

• The audience watching is broad since the two cities are on each US coast (rather than clustered on one coast or both coming from the Midwest). And the Dodgers have not one Japanese-born star in Ohtani, but a second in starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, driving greater interest in the series in the baseball-loving nation of Japan too.

With the Yankees being in the World Series this year, there are of course many mentions of great players from their past. After all, the franchise has been to the World Series now 41 times since 1903, winning 27 times (so far) – 16 more than the second-best team, the St. Louis Cardinals.

As a result of their success, Yankees players naturally dominate the all-time World Series statistical leaderboards. Which player holds the record for most World Series games played? Catcher Yogi Berra, with 75 – ten more than his long-time teammate Mickey Mantle. He also leads in World Series at-bats, plate appearances, and hits, where his 71 is far ahead of Mantle’s 59.

Overall, Berra—whose full name was Lawrence Peter Berra—was a key star on the dominant Yankees clubs of the late 1940s through the early 1960s. He won three AL MVP awards, was an All-Star in 15 consecutive seasons, and is generally considered one of the top-five catchers of all-time.

But Berra is also the mostwidely quoted baseball personality of all-time. Compared with other sports, baseball’s pace is slower. It is often referred to as a thinking-man’s game, full of strategy, critical matchups and moments, and ample opportunity to relate aspects of the game to other areas of life. Berra did that more than anyone else, sometimes by accident given his unique way with words. And his “wisdom” went beyond the game, as he supplied humanity with witty one-liners in other contexts too—often so concisely that you aren’t quite sure if he knew how profound he was sounding or not.

As I’ve watched the World Series games this year, I’ve reflected on some of quotes most famously attributed to Yogi—commonly referred to as “Yogi-isms.” I work as a Sr. Research Analyst for the Institute for Corporate Productivity, or i4cp for short. We are a human capital research firm, so I’ve been specifically thinking about several Yogi-isms and their relevance to business, leadership, and organizational culture. Here is what I found:

1. "You can observe a lot just by watching." A similar line would be “You can hear a lot just by listening.” Organizations have significantly increased their listening strategy in recent years, paying attention to what employees tell them in engagement surveys and often going beyond such annual inputs to more frequently listen via pulse surveys and even always-on listening platforms. (At i4cp we’ve done a lot of research on these trends, and member organizations can learn more from our guidebook Supercharge Your Listening Strategy and other resources.)

2. "The future ain't what it used to be." The ancient Greek philosopher is credited with having said “The only constant in life is change.” This certainly resonates with leaders and workers in today’s business world. Organizations need to be adaptable, whether it's due to technology, market shifts, or evolving workplace dynamics. And even predictions about the near future—as Yogi is alluding to above—quickly change. (That said, watch for i4cp’s forthcoming 2025 Priorities and Predictions report in December!)

3. "Ninety percent of this game is half mental." (Or sometimes quoted as: "Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.") Success in business requires both skill and mindset. A strong mental attitude, adaptability, and resilience can make a significant difference in workplace performance and leadership. Research at i4cp has found that mindset shifts are critical to driving successful culture change, what we call culture renovation.

4. "It ain't over till it's over." As with sports and many areas of life, perseverance is key in the workplace too. Projects, negotiations, or career advancements may seem challenging or even hopeless at times, but it is important to stay committed to sound, important goals and not give up prematurely. People need to avoid the sunk-cost fallacy – continuing to pursue goals that no longer make sense just because you’ve already put in a lot of time and effort. But that is different than giving up when there is still a chance for success.

5. "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Decision-making is inevitable in any organization. Sometimes there is no clear "right" or even optimal choice, and leaders need to confidently make decisions and move forward, even when faced with ambiguity. (At i4cp we’ve created many helpful tools and guidebooks for member organizations, such as an HR Leader’s AI Strategy Toolkit.)

6. "If you don't know where you're going, you might not get there." (And similarly: “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” All good leaders know the importance of setting clear goals and strategy. Without a clear vision, organizations and teams can lose focus and at best deliver sub-optimal results, if not fail outright. This is also relevant to individuals and their career paths—an area that i4cp research has seen a surge in organizational focus given the rise of AI and the ability of internal talent marketplaces to personalize matches between people’s skills and aspirations with potential next moves in the organization. (i4cp members should see the many resources we provide on internal mobility.)

7. "It's like déjà vu, all over again." Repetitive mistakes or recurring challenges in a workplace environment suggest that lessons haven't been learned. This quote is a good reminder to reflect on past experiences and adjust strategies accordingly. Organizations with strong learning cultures do this the best, and our research has found several best and next practices for building and then maintaining a learning culture.

8. "It’s not too far, it just seems like it is." This is again about perseverance, but also about perspective. In the workplace, daunting tasks can seem overwhelming, but with the right mindset and approach, they are often achievable.

9. "Slump? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hitting." Similar to earlier sentiments, having a positive mindset and setting goals are critical – even more so during downturns or other challenging periods in business. Acknowledge the problem, but don't let it define your future potential – focus on the actions needed to recover.

10. “We made too many wrong mistakes.” Learning from mistakes is a powerful way to improve, both in business and in life more generally. That said, not all mistakes are equally instructive for the future—some you just need to move on from and simply make sure you don’t repeat.

11. “If people aren’t going to come to the ballpark, how are you going to stop them?” An interesting way of stating a classic marketing/customer challenge, this sentiment also arises with employees in a variety of contexts. Having spent much of my career focused on learning and development, a big challenge is getting employees to know about and then leverage the learning opportunities that HR makes available. Multiple i4cp studies indicate that the biggest challenge isn’t a lack of interest or lack of need, but a lack of time. To borrow a phrase from a famous baseball movie, when it comes to learning and collaboration platforms, it won’t be the case that ‘if you build it, they will come.’ You need to market the benefits of the offering to the employees/learners, and most importantly give them time in their workday to make use of it.

12. “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.” In one sense I’ve never agreed with the common dichotomy between theory and practice: after all, if a theory doesn’t work in practice, then it isn’t a good theory. But of course there is often a chronology involved here – where the theory comes first, and then you test in reality. So this Yogi-ism is a bit reminiscent of the famous line from poet Robert Burns: “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry…” For business leaders and workers, it is helpful to keep these anecdotes in mind by having strong backup plan B’s and C’s – and also to not spend too much time perfecting a strategy before getting to work on executing it. It is often better to start with a minimally viable product and then learn from the best teacher – the real world.

I’ll stop there, though the above quotes are just a small slice of Yogi Berra’s wit and wisdom. Here is a list of other favorites – perhaps you’ll find some of these interesting as metaphors for challenges in the workplace or just life more generally.

• "Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded." And the similar line “It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.”

• “It gets late early out there.”

• “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”

• “So I’m ugly. So what? I never saw anyone hit with his face.”

• “Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.”

• “You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.”

• “I just want to thank everyone who made this day necessary.”

• “Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.”

• “Half the lies they tell about me aren’t true.”

• “I wish I had an answer to that because I’m tired of answering that question.”

• “I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four.”

• “I’m lucky. Usually you’re dead to get your own museum, but I’m still alive to see mine.”

• “You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.”

• "We have deep depth.”

• “You should always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise, they won’t come to yours.”

• “Pair up in threes.”

• “If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.”

• “Congratulations. I knew the record would stand until it was broken.”

• “I never said half the things I said."