Tech Triumphs and Home Run Strategies with Colorado Rockies Mike Bush

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Susie: Welcome to the Quick Take podcast, the show where you get

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targeted advice and coaching for executives by executives.

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I'm Suzy Tomichuk.

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James: And I'm James Capps.

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Give us 15 minutes and we'll give you three secrets to

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address the complex topic of issues that are challenging

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executives like you today.

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Susie: Hey, welcome to Quick Take.

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I'm your host, Diti Tomacek, along with my co-host, James, my

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second guy in command.

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I'm number one, you're number two.

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There you go.

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James: I am speechless.

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There's so many things to say here, but we have an amazing

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guest today, and so I wanted to keep it PG-13.

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Susie: Tell us about our guest James Keep it PG-13.

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James: Tell us about our guests, james.

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We're excited.

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As part of our series of learning from leaders, we have

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today with us Mike Bush, who is the head of technology at the

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Colorado Rockies an amazing baseball team here in Colorado.

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Mike, thanks for joining us.

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Mike: Thank you.

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It's great to be here, James.

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I've known you a long time and I've always known you're a fool

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of number two, so I think that's all great.

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Susie: This is going to go.

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Well, I can tell.

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Yeah, I knew that number two joke was hanging out there for

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us all.

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James: That was an easy pitch to the baseball guy.

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Mike: Let me knock it out of the park.

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I appreciate that.

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Yeah, that's really good, but yeah, thanks for having me.

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This is super great.

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I've been, I've been a quickster for a long time, so

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it's it's good, it's nice to get to finally realize the dream

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come true.

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Be on with you, guys.

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James: Well, we're just super happy to have you here, and so

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what you know, we were going to talk about some of your

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experiences as a leader and the things that you feel are

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important for your success at the Rockies.

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Can you just maybe tell us a little bit about how you got to

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where you are today and before we jump in, sure, yeah.

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Mike: So I'm actually a recovering accountant.

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I was an accountant for about seven years.

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I have a CPA and an MBA and then decided, you know who's a

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bunch of cooler people than accountants?

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Oh, tech guys, I want to go do that.

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So, about gosh, it's been about 20, 25 years ago now I've.

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I got into tech.

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I came in as a quality assurance at a company called

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FRX that was financial reporting software who got bought by

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Great Plains, who got bought by Microsoft.

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So I ended up in development for Microsoft for about 10 years

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and then I let up a little startup company for about six

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years and then the opportunity at the Rockies came about and

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sort of a friend of a friend knew the hiring manager, and the

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hiring manager was you know said, hey, do I know anybody?

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And I was like, well, I'm a software guy, this is a, this is

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a hardware networking job.

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I said give me the, give me the , give me the job description,

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I'll see if I know anybody.

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And so he gave it to me and I was like give me the, give me

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the, give me the job description , I'll see if I know anybody.

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And so he gave it to me and I was like, hey, leadership, this

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strategic thinking, that budget, I can do that.

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I threw my hat in the ring and then a little bit later that

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magic happened.

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It's been almost eight years now and it's, you know, I've.

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I was a baseball guy my whole life, and especially, you know,

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in 93, when we got the Rockies here, um, you know, so it was

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really was a dream come true for me, and it's, it's, um, it's

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really my dream job, combining two of my passions baseball and

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technology.

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I mean, I couldn't be happier.

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James: It is.

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It is amazing, and I'm often talking to people about you and

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your role and so many people think about what a dream job

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that is to work for a professional sports team, and

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you know you do.

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Not only do you know your response for some really cool

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stuff over there, you know working with MLB, which is

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really a great organization, and the technology that they're

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really leaning into, but I also know that you know your your

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team loves working for you.

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You have a very great organization underneath you, um,

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widely respected, and I think that you know some of the things

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that you're doing over there, um are worth, uh, talking about

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and so, um, I was hoping you could share, you know, our, our

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patented one, two, three system here, uh, patent pending, I

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think, actually paperworkented one, two, three system here,

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patent pending, I think.

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Actually Paperwork is still being submitted.

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Susie: I'm glad you're clear on that.

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Yeah, I don't want to get.

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I don't need any lawsuits, Don't get us in trouble.

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James: Right after Quickster Quickster is one two, three,

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that's right.

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Mike: Oh, we got that one.

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James: Yeah, that's, I think, we that maybe that that you'd like

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to share about how you have been successful in your role.

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Mike: Yeah Well, first of all, I just I want to brag on my own

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team for a minute, just because they really are great.

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You know, we're responsible for all the networking, information

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security.

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You know telephones like Internet, all the cloud apps,

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everything, everything technical for the Colorado Rockies, which

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includes Coors Field.

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It includes Salt River Fields, our spring training facility, we

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have a Dominican Academy and we are also now responsible for

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technology at McGregor Square, which is the multi-use

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development next door to Coors Field.

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Wow, and we do that all with six people.

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So it's an amazing amount of work and you know you want to

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talk about just the ability to get it done when it needs to get

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done.

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You know, especially right now, it's the time of year, opening

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days upon us, and that's for all the people who aren't in Denver

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that listen to you it could be a local holiday.

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You know we're going to have 300 people downtown.

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There's going to be 50 at the game.

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It's going to be crazy, it's going to be fun, it's going to

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be exciting.

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I'm going to have the biggest, coldest beer you've ever seen

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after it's all over and it's a good time for everybody.

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But you know I'm super proud of my team.

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There's not one of them that we could do it without.

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And you know it's really an honor to be able especially

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because I came in, I was inserted as a leader of a team

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that was already there.

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Now we've had a little turnover one person retired and we were

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able to replace one other.

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But you know it's just an honor to be able to be have a

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high-performing team being inserted, sort of at the top

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quote unquote, even though I don't really see myself that way

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, but that's a huge honor for me .

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James: Well, that's, I mean, what a remit too.

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I mean you just a much more than perhaps people think.

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And and, uh, you know, I guess every, every club has its own uh

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, span of control at that level and how much they, they, they

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manage.

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So that's that's impressive.

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I, I didn't realize you did McGregor Square.

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That's, that's still a lot of really impressive stuff.

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So let's jump in.

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And why don't you give us, you know, one of the things that you

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think is really key to keeping that amazing team amazing?

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Mike: Yeah.

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So you know, I want to, I want to harken back to some other

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great episodes you guys did earlier, and I'm going to call

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this back to basics because, um, I I think that, uh, the, the,

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my, you know one, two, three that I have are are, um, things

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that we all know, but things that we're all inclined to

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forget.

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So um uh, so I'm just gonna I'll start out with number one, and

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it's just so simple and it's take blame and give credit,

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right.

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So you need to, um, to, to, uh, really celebrate victories of

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your team and, and you know, celebrate it within the

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organization.

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You know, not in a not not in a braggy way, because people get

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sick of that, right, but if there's something that needs to

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be shared, share it.

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And then, when, when something gets screwed up, you got to, you

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know, turn your back and take those arrows for your team.

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You got to just be able to, to, to have enough confidence in

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your own leadership ability to be able to, uh, you know, just

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just be able to, to, to take those arrows and, um, you know,

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the, the.

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The most important thing that about that is, you know, you

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have to make it a safe place for people to try things.

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You know it just has to be, because what that's going to do,

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it's going to foster innovation and especially in the tech

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world, right, we always need to be on the bleeding edge and if

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people are allowed that freedom to go try something new or to

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try something in a different way and you know it's especially

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important for us because you know, we've been around 30 years

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and I would say you, you know, we're sort of uh, let other

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people try at first type of an organization and and, um, and

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we'll bring it in and once it's sort of proven, especially in a

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baseball world, and um, you know , if we can start getting out

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front and some of that, in front of some of that stuff, um, it's

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great and I like when, when my guys bring that stuff to me

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because, um, you know it, just uh, it just helps them think

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outside the box.

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God, I'm all, I'm just full of cliches, aren't I?

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James: And they're, they're, they're.

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Not too many baseball cliches either.

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Susie: So you're right.

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James: Although that outside the box.

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That could be a that's definitely possible.

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Mike: It could be.

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Yeah, yeah, rattered box, that's right, yeah.

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Susie: So I and just to comment on I like that.

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It's so, so good.

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You know, one thing you did at the very beginning when you kind

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of framed what your group is responsible for.

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It's so good as a leader for people to understand that kind

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of bigger picture, broader picture, and to be proud of that

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because that helps them connect the dots for them.

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And so also when you when you talked about really celebrating

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some of the successes, as leaders, we have to have an ego.

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James and I have talked about this too have an ego, but you

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have to be really careful to keep that in check and be able

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to understand that when something bad does happen, take

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a breath so that you can make sure, because it's sometimes

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easier to say let him make mistakes.

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You got to like give yourself a moment, to like allow it to

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happen so you don't react, because we also want to fix

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things too.

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So I love that one.

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James: Thank you.

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Yeah, I think that's key things too, so I love that one.

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Thank you, yeah, I think that's key.

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That's really that, that whole nature of of of you know taking

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credit or giving credit and and and taking blame you create a

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safe space.

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I think that's really the bottom line there and I think

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that's that's super important.

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Mike: Yeah, and and and just, susie to, to go back to a point

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that you were making, like just to extend on it.

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And so we're, we're in where I met James as part of a local CIO

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group, right, and I hosted an event at Coors Field in November

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and I was racking my brain what can I do to?

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That would be interesting for this group?

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And then I just decided I asked all my people to stay late.

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They all agreed to and we just had a Q and a with them and I

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got such hugely positive feedback from our CIO peers that

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it was just amazing, just you know, just just to see how tight

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we are in the camaraderie, and just you know, to explain in

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detail all the work that we do.

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And it was just, and it was so nice to give them the

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opportunity to shine um in front of this particular group.

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It was really, really great it was.

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It was a huge success, for it was a win-win, for sure.

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James: Yeah, it was a great, a great event and and, um, uh,

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yeah, just allowing them, uh, to speak about what they do.

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The pride came through so strong and that was amazing.

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So let's jump to number two.

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What's the second item that you got?

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Mike: Yeah, yeah, and again, it's just so simple.

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I'm almost embarrassed, but it's just do what you say you're

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going to do, right, and I know I'm an avid quickster, you know,

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I have to admit.

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So I know that you guys talk about this in different flavors

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quite often and I'm just going to echo it because it's just so

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valuable and it's something that so many people forget.

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And you know, for me it's, it's not even I always intend to do

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what I say I'm going to do, but you know, with, with the

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pressures that we have, um sort of leading the group, um, uh,

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the, the thing that I always felt myself doing, or caught

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myself doing, was just forgetting, you know, and and

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then that makes whoever you said you're going to do feel very

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unimportant, right?

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So, um, the the thing that that that I've done, uh, quite

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recently, um, thanks to another one of our, our friends, uh,

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james Dolores um, you know, come up with an accountability

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system for yourself.

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Susie: And you know I.

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Mike: I, I'm great at writing stuff down and writing to do's

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and things like that, and she gave me the best tip and it was

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great.

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And it is when you write stuff down, if you put something in a

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square the things that you have to follow up on and things in a

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circle that other people have to follow up on, and then just

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cross it out whenever you're done, it's like I mean, I still

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forget stuff, but had a lot less frequency than I used to.

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Right, yeah, but it you know, just coming up with that

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accountability system has been huge for me.

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Susie: Yeah, so, and you're right, we, we do talk about

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trust when you, when you do what you say you're going to do, and

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people look for leaders that instill trust in them.

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And to your point too, if you, you.

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That accountability system is so important, because if you're

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not able to do what you said you're going to do, for whatever

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reason, closing the loop is also as worthy.

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James: Just as important.

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Yeah, right, right, right.

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That's the second time this week.

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Actually, suzy, we've heard you and I have talked about

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somebody having a notebook or a system that they track

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everything.

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I think you were working with somebody whose leadership team

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also had a book.

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What was that?

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Susie: Yeah, a leadership notebook.

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A very senior person said he keeps a leadership notebook that

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he goes back to on a regular basis, monthly, and rereads some

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of the things about what he wanted to remember.

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So having that is, I think, really powerful.

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Mike: Yeah, through that CIO group too, I have the

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opportunity to mentor a couple of guys, so Bobby and Swami they

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actually are quicksters as well now, because one of my guys

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actually just got a promotion to CTO, of my guys actually just

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got a promotion to CTO and and you guys just happened to do a

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uh an episode on uh, the for the great three things to do after

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you get your big promotion, and so it was perfect timing for him

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.

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So, um, that was awesome.

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But, but, um, as part of that, um, we read uh, we're doing a

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book club with a book called the leadership challenge and um,

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that's it's.

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I've read it.

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I've read it four or five times now, and anytime I get an

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opportunity to mentor somebody, that's the book I go to, because

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it's just at the heart of of what I want to be as a leader.

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So that's it.

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James: Yeah, I know that you've quoted that book to me a number

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of times, um, and I do think it is a, it's a classic and, and

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you know, it's kind of going like you were mentioning, going

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back to basics, right, I love the fact that we, as humans, can

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hear something five times, and that's six time.

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It hits you right between the eyes, um, and so you know, uh,

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you know, forever curious and always learning and be open to

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hearing that stuff.

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Um, uh, it goes a long way.

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All right, let's hear your third item.

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Mike: You know.

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The third one again.

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You know, maybe it's not so basic, especially if you're more

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of an introvert, but I'm not so , I don't get it.

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But it's just leveraged personal relationships.

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You know, and I'm not just saying that, um, you know, just

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like for, for, for people on your team, and you know, um,

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people that are working for you.

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But you know you gotta do it with peers, you've got to do it,

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you've got to leverage your personal relationships up.

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You know it's, it's, it's just so important to to have that

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other connection with people.

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You know, and I'm not saying be unprofessional, right, but if

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you, if you ask long enough, you're going to find something

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in common with somebody that every time you see them from now

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on you can at least talk about that one thing, and then that's

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always going to break your ice with that person.

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And you know that's that's.

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I finally got my head out and started doing that in

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professional settings too, you know.

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So, like our CIO groups, and you know the different

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conferences I go to and things like that, our CIO groups, and

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and you know the the different conferences I go to and things

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like that I always make it a point to just like find out as

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much as I can as I can about you know people that I've never met

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before and it's just so exciting and that that energizes

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me Right, and that's part of you know, whenever you're

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talking about the Myers-Briggs type indicator I scored a

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hundred percent on an extrovert, so take that for what it's

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worth.

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James: Indicator I scored a hundred percent on an extrovert.

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So take that for what it's worth.

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Mike: But but I just get my, I just get my energy from from

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meeting people and knowing people and then being able to,

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to, to refer back and and and remember.

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I mean.

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But the thing that stinks about me on that respect is that I'm

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in the world I'm the worst with names, so I'll be like oh,

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you're the person that you know hit 800 in that softball league.

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How are you doing, buddy?

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You know like so you can give me one, two, three tips on

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remember people's names.

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That would be great yeah.

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James: Yeah, that's.

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I don't have any of those tips whatsoever, so I do have to.

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Susie: I have to comment here because I listened to a great

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podcast Tim Ferriss did and there was a guy on it that was

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just talking about connection and relationships.

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And he did this thing where he wrote down all the good things

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that have happened to him in his life and it was a very long

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list and what he discovered about it it was all connected to

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people he knew.

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And so now get this he challenges himself to connect

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with a thousand people every quarter.

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Wow, a thousand, yeah.

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Mike: I'm not that big of an extrovert.

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Susie: But the connection.

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His point is that we need to invest in each other.

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And even just that connection you don't even know why in each

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other, and even just that connection you don't even know

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why, but you could be giving and also getting it.

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It goes both ways.

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So I love that advice.

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I think that is so core to why we're here as leaders is to help

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others.

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James: Definitely.

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Yeah, you know I agree with what you're saying.

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I want to pivot just slightly off of the energy part and the

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extrovert part, because there are people that don't naturally

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want to do that, that you might as well have said please eat

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several spiders to our listeners when you said interact with a

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thousand people a day, because that is very difficult in some

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cases.

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And but what I want to highlight is, as you were telling that

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story, as I remember talking to somebody who had just been

00:19:27
promoted underneath me, and they said I'm going to do the job

00:19:30
but I'm not going to play politics.

00:19:32
And I and my thought to my response to them was I'm sorry,

00:19:35
politics is the job.

00:19:37
And now, at some level, what those connections?

00:19:41
Your advice is fantastic Leverage those relationships.

00:19:44
But at a senior level, the relationships is they are the

00:19:48
job.

00:19:48
Susie: Totally Right.

00:19:49
James: Because if we all were just standing in our own little

00:19:52
silos and doing the job and everything got done, that's a

00:19:55
different kind of event.

00:19:55
That's that's.

00:19:56
You know this goes back to uh this is a coincidence, I

00:20:00
apologize frankly that there's this football versus baseball.

00:20:03
Right, football players do one thing, no matter where the

00:20:04
football is, versus baseball.

00:20:05
Right, football players do one thing, no matter where the

00:20:06
football is, they do it.

00:20:07
Baseball players have to respond as a team to what is

00:20:11
happening, and so, as leaders, it's more jazz than it is um, uh

00:20:18
, a, an orchestra, a symphony, and so I think relationships are

00:20:23
the, are the, the lubricant that makes that happen, and I

00:20:25
think that those people that choose not to take advantage of

00:20:28
that and realize how important it is are just simply not as

00:20:33
successful.

00:20:33
Mike: Yeah, and I, you know, just to sort of tell a story

00:20:38
about sort of the outcomes of that, you know sort of a success

00:20:46
story for my team, and that is two years ago three years ago

00:20:52
now, I don't know if you remember, but the All-Star Game

00:20:57
came to Denver and it was sort of a surprise.

00:21:01
Usually you get two years to plan for it.

00:21:03
We had 13 weeks.

00:21:04
So we had to really pull together and leverage all of

00:21:09
those relationships as a team, within each other, but also

00:21:13
within our vendors and with our MLB community, and luckily we

00:21:18
have those relationships with those people, with all these

00:21:21
people we needed to rely on to pull that off.

00:21:23
Now that was, you know, 28 straight days of 10 hour days.

00:21:27
But you know, and and I got all reflective on it you know which

00:21:31
is it's.

00:21:32
It's might be silly, but it was the first major national event

00:21:36
coming out of COVID.

00:21:37
So, you know, and we pulled it off, and my team pulled it off

00:21:41
and and we, you know, so I was like I had a little tiny part of

00:21:45
bringing America out of COVID and that was just really great.

00:21:50
But the biggest compliment out of all of that was, after it was

00:21:53
over, the CISO for MLB Neil Boland.

00:21:56
He came to me and said you know , when he heard they were moving

00:22:02
the All-Star game to a different team, he there's one

00:22:06
of two teams that knew they could that could pull it off in

00:22:09
mind.

00:22:10
So just cause he knows my people, yeah, that's great,

00:22:13
that's so great.

00:22:15
James: That's a great story and, yeah, that was an amazing thing

00:22:17
.

00:22:17
I remember that was a yeah, it was a light switch.

00:22:20
It's coming here, get ready Um and um, that was amazing.

00:22:25
And yeah with, you're absolutely right.

00:22:26
I do remember that game.

00:22:27
I do remember feeling that it was, you know, the path towards

00:22:31
normalcy, and it was a great feeling that that we had that

00:22:34
here in Colorado as well.

00:22:36
So I think that that feeling you have about what that brought

00:22:40
to everybody, I think, is as well Well, well earned.

00:22:45
Susie: All right, james, do it.

00:22:47
What are the three?

00:22:48
Can you remember?

00:22:48
All right, let me see if I get this right.

00:22:50
James: So the three keys to to becoming an amazing leader by

00:22:55
like, uh, uh, our friend here, mr Bush, uh, would be one.

00:22:58
Um you know, take blame or give credit and take the blame right

00:23:03
.

00:23:13
take the blame right.

00:23:14
Give credit, take blame.

00:23:15
Second one is you know, do what you say you're going to do.

00:23:16
Create that trust, be consistent with your folks.

00:23:17
And then three leverage relationships Know that you know

00:23:21
what got you here is probably based on the people that you

00:23:24
work with and take advantage of that and and, and you know, lean

00:23:29
on each other so you can be better.

00:23:31
Susie: Those are three great items.

00:23:32
You hit them out of the park.

00:23:34
No strikes there.

00:23:37
James: See what I did there.

00:23:38
You're welcome.

00:23:39
That was pretty good.

00:23:40
Yeah, I'm pretty, I'm damn impressed.

00:23:44
Susie: I know you are, I know you are.

00:23:46
Hey, mike, thank you so much.

00:23:50
This was great wisdom and it was just really fun to hear your

00:23:54
insights and context to leadership.

00:23:57
Mike: Thanks for being here, Mike.

00:23:57
Thank you for the invite.

00:23:59
This was even better than I expected.

00:24:04
James: Hey Susie, I was wondering have you ever had to

00:24:06
turn down a consulting or coaching agreement, and why?

00:24:12
Susie: It's really hard for me to say no, that's really hard.

00:24:16
Yes, I have had to.

00:24:22
The reason was I could tell that the leader was thinking

00:24:29
that his team needed to be better leaders, they needed to

00:24:34
take feedback, they needed all these things.

00:24:37
But the problem was really him, and I could tell from very

00:24:48
early meetings and I was suspect of it.

00:24:49
And then we continued to have additional contextual meetings

00:24:51
by adding some more of his members of the team and I

00:24:53
realized, oh, this is, I'm exactly right, it's, it's really

00:24:58
him.

00:24:59
James: And so that's tough.

00:25:00
Susie: Yeah, I just decided it wasn't something I wanted to

00:25:03
take on because I I didn't feel like I could change him thing I

00:25:09
wanted to take on because I didn't feel like I could change

00:25:12
him.

00:25:12
James: No, those are huge challenges.

00:25:12
I mean, at some point, even there are people that are

00:25:14
frankly just uncoachable.

00:25:15
That's tough.

00:25:16
Susie: Yep, that's true.

00:25:17
I would agree with that.

00:25:18
I would say that's not a universal belief, but I

00:25:24
definitely believe it.

00:25:24
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Quick Take,

00:25:30
where we talk about the questions that are on the mind

00:25:32
of executives everywhere.

00:25:34
Connect with us and share what's on your mind.

00:25:37
James: You can find us on LinkedIn, youtube or whatever

00:25:39
nerdy place on the internet.

00:25:40
You find your podcasts.

00:25:42
Our links to the show are in the show notes.

00:25:45
Susie: We appreciate you.