Each group is aware of who its stars are. However the individual you possibly can’t afford to lose? That’s usually another person completely. They is probably not the highest-paid or most seen, however they carry an experience that makes them irreplaceable, generally much more than your MVP.
In sports activities, that individual was Dennis Rodman.
As one former NBA government reportedly stated of Dennis Rodman, he wasn’t the perfect scorer or chief and wasn’t all the time cherished within the locker room. However his groups don’t win a championship with out him.
In enterprise, that individual is perhaps in your staff proper now—uncelebrated, underpaid and irreplaceable.
The Rodman Paradox describes the counterintuitive phenomenon the place a corporation’s most dear contributor isn’t essentially its most gifted or highest-performing member however the one whose specialised expertise are essentially the most tough to switch. Named after NBA participant Dennis Rodman, who within the late ’80s and ’90s demonstrably improved his groups’ successful percentages greater than even his extra extremely regarded teammates, this paradox emerges when somebody masters a vital operate that few others can adequately carry out.
I name this The Rodman Paradox.
What Is The Rodman Paradox?
Whereas standard valuation focuses on total efficiency or management qualities, true organizational resilience usually relies on figuring out and retaining these specialised contributors whose absence creates disproportionate disruption. In contexts starting from healthcare to expertise to manufacturing, this precept challenges conventional hierarchies. It means that distinctive specialists in seemingly supporting roles can generally be extra important to operational success than even distinctive generalists in management positions.
Named for Dennis Rodman—a participant who by no means led his staff in scoring, was by no means a staff captain, and made solely two all-star groups in a 14-year profession, and but constantly made good groups nice, and nice groups elite—the paradox challenges leaders to look past the org chart when assessing worth.
The Function Participant Who Modified All the pieces
Dennis Rodman by no means led a staff in factors. He wasn’t the face of a franchise. He was traded, fined and famously unconventional. For many of his profession, he was thought of at finest the third-best participant on his staff, even by his coaches.
However right here’s what else is true: Rodman’s groups received 5 NBA championships, reached six NBA Finals and constantly posted greater successful percentages when he was on the ground. He has one of many highest successful percentages in NBA historical past, and the HIGHEST successful share in NBA playoff historical past.
When the Detroit Pistons drafted Rodman, they went from a staff that might not get previous the Boston Celtics to 1 that celebrated its first championship in two years.
Later, when Rodman joined the Chicago Bulls in 1995–96—with Michael Jordan already again and Scottie Pippen in his prime—the staff jumped from “champion” to “traditionally nice,” going 72–10 and kicking off a second three-peat.
When Rodman signed with the San Antonio Spurs, the staff went to the NBA finals for the primary time in its historical past, and the Spurs David Robinson received his solely MVP award.
In his lone season with the Los Angeles Lakers, they received video games at a 60-win tempo when he performed and fell to .500 when he didn’t.
That wasn’t a coincidence. That was the Rodman impact.
Rebounding As A Superpower
Rodman didn’t shoot. He didn’t rating. However he grabbed rebounds like nobody earlier than or since.
Stat analyst Benjamin Morris, writing for his weblog Skeptical Sports activities Evaluation, discovered that Rodman’s rebounding efficiency ranked six normal deviations above league norms in rebounding—a statistical rarity so excessive it occurs roughly as soon as each 400 years. (Rodman led the NBA with 18.7 rebounds per sport within the ‘91-92 season, a feat unmatched within the 33 years since.) Morris, now with FiveThirtyEight, argued that Rodman is perhaps essentially the most underrated participant within the historical past of the NBA.
I’m good at knowledge evaluation, however six normal deviations sounds just like the realm of science fiction to me. I requested ChatGPT to provide a real-world instance to assist me get my head round it. It informed me it was like a automobile getting 600 miles per gallon. I requested a number of different examples, and it produced this desk.
| Class | Regular | Rodman-Degree Outlier Equal |
| Automotive mileage | 30 MPG | 600 MPG (20x enchancment) |
| Typing velocity | 60 WPM | 1,200 WPM |
| Inventory returns | 10%/yr | 200%/yr with no threat |
| Worker output | 5 duties/day | 100 high-quality duties per day |
| Olympic dash | 100m in 10s | 100m in below 5s |
Rodmans In The Office
You’ve labored with a Rodman. Possibly you might be one.
These are the individuals whose titles don’t replicate their affect and whose influence is just not acknowledged or totally appreciated. However their absence would instantly pressure groups, delay outcomes or trigger key accounts to wobble. They’re usually neglected—till they depart.
I contacted my community for real-world examples of position gamers being extra priceless than the extra senior and extremely compensated. Three stick out.
A CFO shared that his staff had a second-year monetary analyst who was the one one within the firm who understood generative AI. He had a controller with over 20 years of expertise who was a excessive performer. Nonetheless, he felt that dropping the analyst could be extra problematic than dropping the controller, as changing the analyst could be nearly inconceivable in at the moment’s workforce. The controller was a greater total performer, however the single factor the analyst did was irreplaceable.
An account supervisor had simply two accounts, representing almost 20 p.c of the corporate’s income. The president confessed that if he have been pressured to decide on between this rep and his vice chairman of gross sales, he would decide the account supervisor. He additionally stated that the vice chairman was the perfect performer in that position he had ever seen. The account supervisor was taking part in Rodman to the VP’s Jordan.
A companion at a nationwide CPA agency shared that his prime recruiter, one of the crucial related individuals within the metropolis, was instrumental find the early-career expertise important to a CPA agency’s progress. He thought of her extra priceless than the top of HR or the workplace’s managing companion (OMP). He believed the agency had at the least a dozen individuals who may step into the OMP position, however there was no person to switch such a well-connected recruiter.
These aren’t outliers. They’re in all places—if you understand how to look.
Why We Overlook Them
Rodmans are inclined to:
- Concentrate on one thing messy, area of interest or unsexy
- Make others higher as a substitute of in search of the highlight
- Keep quietly competent whereas louder voices get the credit score
- Not win “worker of the month.” They don’t ask for promotions. They present up, do the work and maintain the entire thing collectively
- Allude simple quantification. In basketball, there’s no stat for a rebound that results in a quick break that results in an help. The affect of Rodmans will get misattributed, ignored or misunderstood. Till they’re gone.
My Personal Expertise: Serving to VCs Discover Their Rodmans
Years in the past, I labored with a VC agency conducting a large-scale restructuring throughout a number of portfolio firms. When pressured to make tough selections, these traders realized one thing profound: the costliest individuals weren’t essentially essentially the most consequential. In a number of instances, it was a knowledge engineer, a licensing supervisor or a mid-level biochemist propping up the corporate’s precise worth and whose absence the group would miss essentially the most. These have been the individuals we constructed round. The executives have been simpler to switch.
Find out how to Establish The Rodmans
Wish to construct a resilient group? Begin right here:
- Audit by Influence, Not Title. Ask your division leads: Who’s the individual in your staff you hope by no means leaves? Then ask why.
- Rethink Efficiency Metrics. Some contributions are onerous to measure in isolation, however essential together. Make house for evaluating those that make others higher.
- Redesign Recognition. Most recognition applications reward visibility. Add mechanisms to honor the quiet enablers.
- Defend Them Strategically. Rodmans are not often irreplaceable on paper, however in observe, changing them can take six months and require three individuals. Deal with them accordingly.
Greatness vs. Irreplaceability
Michael Jordan was the best basketball participant of all time, or at the least that I’ve ever seen. However even he wanted Dennis Rodman and different position gamers.
Rodman did what Jordan couldn’t. He dealt with the work others wouldn’t do in addition to anybody ever had. And whereas Jordan was the higher total participant, Rodman was higher at rebounding than Jordan was at scoring, and had a talent set that was rarer than Jordan’s.
The Jordan versus Rodman debate was a central level of Mr. Morris’ article referenced above. After studying Morris’ evaluation, I’ve concluded that Rodman was the extra irreplaceable participant as a result of his distinctive talent set. Irreplaceable on this case doesn’t imply higher. If there have been a clone of Jordan (Bulls followers can solely want), that may not diminish his greatness; it could solely make him replaceable.
To check this concept, I chosen gamers with talent units much like Jordan’s and Rodman’s and envisioned the influence of changing them with these gamers. I thought of solely gamers I had seen play. For Jordan’s alternative, I chosen Kobe Bryant, and for Rodman, I picked Ben Wallace. Each gamers are members of the Basketball Corridor of Fame, in order that they have been changed by different elite gamers on this hypothetical situation.
Jordan to Kobe? That’s a step down.
Rodman to Wallace? That’s falling off a cliff.
This is the reason, in your organization, the place no person’s successful MVPs, your Rodman is perhaps extra essential than your Jordan.
