It was inevitable that Ryan Poles would bring some new ways of thinking with him from Kansas City when he became the GM. As a guy who intends to build the team primarily through the draft, he knows that having as accurate a draft board as possible is pivotal to the franchise’s future success. So he’d have to make sure he and the Bears scouting department were on the same page.
To do this, the 36-year-old implemented a new exercise at Halas Hall. Typically when meeting for draft evaluations, teams go around the room polling scouts about certain prospects. Poles realized that there might be a flaw in this process. It creates a groupthink mentality. For those who don’t know, groupthink is the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility.
Put simply, scouts sometimes might cave into peer pressure.
They decide it’s better to go along with the larger group on certain players rather than stand out. So Poles found a way to remove that with a new feature. When evaluating each position group, the scouts were polled on every player. Then the data was filtered into an algorithm and displayed on a screen. This allowed them to see how everybody, anonymously, had it ranked. It led to a clear indication of which players were leading the pack and which required more debate.
Then to make it even more detailed, Poles shifted it to position vs. position. For example, say an offensive guard and wide receiver of equal value are against each other. Which player do guys take? It led to fascinating discussions on which position the team should value more. The entire exercise was meant to get complete honesty from everybody in the room.
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Ryan Poles doesn’t want guys slipping through the cracks.
It is the worst nightmare of any general manager to learn they let a good player get away because their evaluations of him were inadequate. That is why he’s determined to get the truth out of his scouts. He wants guys to be honest with their feelings. Don’t be afraid to stir the pot because you think differently about a certain player. One could argue this was the trap that Ryan Pace fell into with Mitch Trubisky in 2017.
He was a huge believer in the young quarterback and went around the room asking people the same. It seemed at the time he had total consensus on his decision. However, a few years later, it came out that several people in the building disagreed. It is possible that groupthink took over. Certain scouts or coaches didn’t want to rock the boat by confronting Pace on Trubisky, so they just went along with it.
The same thing may have happened with Phil Emery and Shea McClellin in 2012.
Ryan Poles knows the worst thing that can happen to a GM is to overthink it with certain players. That is why one of his goals is for the scouts and front office to keep him honest. Don’t be afraid to speak out. He isn’t afraid to have discussions if a case is made. Being able to listen is something he values. Hopefully, that serves him well on Friday.
