In yesterday's sports section, Bob Ryan wrote an interesting opinion piece. He was trying to explain the difference between "Sport" and "Entertainment." In his mind, we are drawn to sport to see an athlete or team compete and possibly win. The outcome is not known prior to the event being contested. That tension and uncertainty results in entertainment. He was very quick to stress that the emphasis should be on the sport and not the entertainment.
In order to highlight the difference between the two, he brought up the fiasco involving replacement referees in last week's Monday Night Football game between the Seahawks and the Packers. A controversial decision that looked to all eyes to be wrong stole the victory away from the Packers and awarded it to the Seahawks. While it was tremendously entertaining--sparking days of passionate discussion about the event and the circumstances leading up to it--it had nothing to do with the sport itself. If anything, it undermined the legitimacy of the contest.
In the same way, at our company we often have to make sure that we do not allow activity to substitute for effectivity. There are times when we seem mired in endless meetings that cover the same points. We should not lose sight of the end goal of reaching some tangible objective. There may be a need to sacrifice some of the activity so that we can reach the more important goal of effectivity.
As I begin a series of discussions with industry peers on the complex world of data standards, I'll try to keep the difference in mind.
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