The Berra Principle: What is This Blog About, Anyway?

Yogi Berra is quoted as having said, “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.”  A lot of life is like that. It all looks pretty straightforward from the sidelines.  But when you cross on to the field of play, theory is just that.  What matters is what is happening in the game, whether it be baseball or big business.  Over a forty-year career my experience has been that this is how leadership works.  There is a rich literature on leadership, and probably as many theories on leadership as there are authors of books and articles. This blog, as you may have noticed, is not about theory.  It is about doing.

Theory is by and large neat and clean. Practice is often chaotic and messy. Leadership does not come from a structured, step-by-step formula for success. It comes in large part from what you experience daily on the field of play, be that in the office or on a baseball diamond, and how you respond. I was never much for watching from the sidelines, or for trying to figure out what algorithms needed to be applied to a given set of circumstances. I was more for taking the field and playing the game.  This is what Yogi Berra was all about, hence “The Berra Principle.”  He saw more clearly than most that practice is what gives you a framework for operational theory, in baseball or in life, and not vice versa.

The same goes for leadership. You can’t learn the fine points of the game (or even the basics) from the sidelines.  You can’t lead from there, either.  Leaders are those who step on the field and play the game.  Leaders aren’t made.  They just are.  Leadership emerges from a blend of natural ability and experience.  The key to leadership for me was to take what I observed and endured and make it mine.  I never aspired to be like any leaders I worked with.  I aspired to take everything—the good, the bad, and the ugly—and use it to shape my own style. 

This blog is about where leadership took me and what I learned along the way. It is based on events, not theory. Leadership took me, among other places, to the front page of the Sunday New York Times (above the fold), to The Atlantic magazine, and to ABC’s Nightline. What I learned getting to those places may be helpful to someone else.

What I have to say comes from a unique and unusual career.  My team at University of Phoenix undeniably changed the face of American higher education. In so doing we set precedents and broke a lot of new ground (and a few rules). We pioneered elements of distance education that are commonplace today. There was no theory or template to follow. We stepped onto the field every day and took our swings. We learned from our successes and setbacks and refined our game.  Our distinctive perspectives, at least mine, on higher education and the world in general—including leadership-- has undoubtedly been shaped by all this.