"Write about what you know", so goes the adage most popularly ascribed to Hemingway, however in this spirit I am inclined to take the extended advice of Ursula Le Guin and "Write What You Know, but remember you may know Dragons..". In this month's #CetusTalks blog, I am looking at some change management principles in Sport and was inspired to do so by a story I saw at the end of last year relating to the Cleveland Baseball team (the 'Dragon' of the story..), formerly known as the Indians, now known as the Guardians.

Founded as a franchise in 1894, Cleveland underwent five name changes in their first 20 years of operation before settling on the Cleveland Indians in 1915, a name that remained in situ for 106 years before last year's rebrand. Now any organisation with a 100+ year history will have experienced a great degree of change over that time and the Guardians are no exception in that regard, however for the purposes of this article the focus will be solely on last year's rebrand.

History

So what prompted an organisation to completely rebrand after 106 years? A complex question undoubtedly but essentially one that centres around the Native American mascot controversy that had been gaining momentum since the 1960s. Cleveland became the Indians back in 1914 in honour of a Native American player for the Spiders (an earlier Cleveland-based Baseball team), Louis Sockalexis, and the name stuck along with associated nicknames, mascots, and logos. Criticisms of the Indians insignia first started to surface around 1997 with protests actively coming to the fore in 2015 on the centennial anniversary of the Indians name. These protests were initially dismissed by the Owners with no stated intention to change the branding. However, continued protest and an increase in the opposition voices lead Cleveland to drop the "Chief Wahoo" logo from the on-field uniforms in 2018, and finally seek to address the team name following the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the subsequent focus on the Black Lives Matter movement and the social justice implications thereafter. The new Guardians name was announced via a Twitter post in July 2021 with the change coming into effect in November of that year.

Change Is Inevitable, Successful Change Is Not

So what was the catalyst for change in this instance? Were Cleveland forced societally into the change? Possibly. By 2021 it had become increasingly difficult for any organisation to justify a public visual presence with such complicated connotations to negative stereotyping of minorities. Cleveland were far from alone in this decision, with the Washington NFL team dropping the "Redskins" from their name to become the "Commanders", whilst in Canada the Edmonton "Eskimos" renamed to the "Elks". These changes at professional level have started a trickle down effect to the School team network in the US however it would still be widely acknowledged that there remains plenty to do still in this area. The Exeter Chiefs Rugby Union team in England have recently announced their intention to drop their Native American imagery from next season whilst retaining their "Chiefs" moniker to align closer with their geographical Chieftain heritage. So it is hard to argue that such a name change and rebrand for Cleveland was not a positive move, indeed it could be seen as an inevitable one when viewed against the backdrop of social justice.

So when change is seeming inevitable, how should it be managed to ensure it is successful? What are the key change management principles that need to be considered?

Let's look at one of the most important change management factors, Stakeholder Management. Typically (but perhaps not correctly..?) changes are communicated to stakeholders towards the end of a project or change initiative, once the impacts have been fully assessed and understood. All necessary training and communications are completed ready for the go-live so its fresh in everyone's minds. It would be rare that stakeholders would be brought into the conversation prior to a change being made however Cleveland adopted a really interesting way of garnering initial feedback from their core stakeholder base, namely the Cleveland fans and the local Baseball community. They also broadened their reach further and engaged local and national Indigenous organisations for their subject matter expertise as it were. Approximately 1200 names were considered over the course of a year and the Guardians also conducted 140 hours of interviews with those fans, community leaders, and front office personnel. Finally, they surveyed almost 40,000 Cleveland fans to arrive at the final name, the Guardians. Conscious to ensure the new name would resonate with the local fanbase and community, the Guardians represent the 'Guardians of Traffic' art deco statues that stand prominently on the city's Hope Memorial Bridge that runs adjacent to the team's stadium, Progressive Field (note the parallel to the Exeter Chiefs there with ensuring local connections are maintained to the new identity). It is clear therefore, that the early stakeholder engagement was critical to the Guardian's decision making.

Launch & Land

How then to mange the communications of this decision? With all their social channels readily established it was clear that Cleveland needed this message to stand out and resonate with the target audience above and beyond a regular tweet or post, a principle we at Cetus HQ term as "launch & land". A simple principle really, in that the message/decision/announcement/ whatever it may be firstly needs to 'launch' into the right spaces so it is received by the right people (this could be social media, broadcast media, print media, desk drop flyers, any multitude of delivery mechanisms), and then it needs to 'land' the key message that it is delivering, in as clear and concise a way as possible. The Guardians went with the aforementioned Twitter post in July 2021, narrated by avid Cleveland fan Tom Hanks and featuring wonderful swooping imagery of the city and bundles of emotive archive baseball footage. 

A 2 minute 11 second tweeted video to announce a change of a name that had stood for 106 years. What a launch. It certainly would have reached all of the intended primary audience in the baseball community and a large proportion of secondary recipients like myself, those with an active interest in Sport and Change but not directly affiliated to Cleveland or indeed to Major League Baseball itself. Tom Hanks delivers the pivotal quote at the halfway point of the video having acknowledged the steep history of Cleveland baseball over the first minute, "we remember these moments as we move forward with change". The second minute looks to the future and the new identity for players and fans alike. The narration of such a heavyweight actor as Hanks really drives home the message and the change in an unparalleled way. We will have to look at getting Mr Hanks to narrate all key Cetus announcements going forward..

How did the message land though? In typical social media fashion, the reaction was completely mixed and polarised. Indeed the first 2 replies to the tweet at the time of writing were in complete contrast. The first congratulating the team "I like the new name...now let's PLAY BALL!", with the second stating "Shameful...shame on you". A lot of protesting voices online for sure, but how reflective is that actually of real-life opinion? It's a tricky one, it certainly can't be ignored but similarly shouldn't be taken as gospel mainstream opinion by any means. The Guardian's Manager Terry Francona summed it up quite succinctly; “what’s important is how people that are different — not less, just different — how they feel about this, we’re trying to be respectful and trying to be unified. And change is not always easy, I get it, it doesn’t happen overnight". In another 106 years will Cleveland fans look aback and wonder what all the fuss was about? Indeed, what did the 1914 Twitterati have to say when Cleveland changed from the "Napoleons" to the "Indians"? I suppose time will ultimately tell. What is certain now though is that Cleveland have navigated this very sensitive period of change with positivity and a bold new vision and identity, for that they should be applauded at least. I'll leave the last word to Mr Hanks which makes everything seem rather simple in the end..

"There's always been Cleveland, and that's the best part of our name".

Well, quite.