Photo credit: Casey Green.

I was standing by third base and had just finished wildly making windmills with my arms to encourage three nine- and ten-year olds toward home.  One of our baseball players had slapped a baseball between the wickets of a now-unhappy second-baseman.

The opposing coach made a very good point:  "Ever notice how errors so often follow walks?"  I chuckled - our team had taken the lead so I was comfortable chuckling.  But the coach was right.  At any level when you start walking batters, the fielders are lulled to sleep.  Walks are soporific.  They require no skill on the part of the pitcher, batters or fielders and a baseball game beset with them grinds to geologic pace as the batters decide not to swing and fielders begin to notice shapes in the dirt and happenings on other fields in the park.

And then a strike is thrown by the pitcher.  The ball is hit and a sleepy player needs to wake up in less than two seconds.  This is how errors occur.

The same is true for business.  Employees need to be challenged.  They need to keep their chops sharp.  Without the stimulation of new challenges and, yes, problems to solve, sloppiness settles in.  What is the saying?  If you want something done well, give it to a busy person. 

Sure mistakes happen when an organization or person is too busy but they happen just as often when things are slow.  When things are humming, the world seems to work well.  One more reason to avoid walks. 

And we did win.