Learning from the Savannah Bananas

Thinking outside the box? How about getting rid of the box?

After a summer of experimenting with AI, I have been contemplating the word “creativity.” What does it mean, exactly? Can it be taught? Do we know what we mean when we use the word?

After polling a lot of “creative” people, we usually mean something like “applied imagination,” or the production of something others will regard as “imaginative” or “creative” or “inventive.”

A really simple example is the Nine Dot Problem, which asks us to connect three rows of three dots each with just one line, a puzzle that can be solved only by extending that one line outside the “field” or imagined box containing the dots. First proposed by psychologist N.R.F. Maier in 1930, it’s become a mascot for “thinking outside the box,” or creative thinking that pushes us past what we thought were our mental limitations.

For the same reasons that I’ve been wrestling with the word “creativity,” I recently read Jesse Cole’s Banana Ball, a chronicle of the founding of the improbable and irrepressibly “creative” Savannah Bananas baseball team. While the Bananas defy simple descriptions, think of them as an utterly delightful combination of circus, sport, community and magic. With a simple, organizing promise, “Fans First, Entertain Always,” the Bananas are a traveling geyser of creativity, which is so intentionally baked into the culture of the club that I finished the book knowing I wanted to share with you some of its takeaways. 

The goal here is to shoot a flare gun into the skies of our imaginations to hopefully produce a cascade of sparks that could just lead us to something special. Because we’re talking about fun, how about an idea six-pack?

First idea: Cultivate a love of ideas and a culture of creativity

The Bananas have weekly OTT sessions, for “Over the Top” brainstorming “idea-paloozas.” Believing that bad ideas can lead to good ones, staff are encouraged not to hold anything back. These sessions have led to such Banana Ball phenomena as a pitcher hurling on 7-foot stilts, a batter hitting with wood literally on fire, and an outfielder who goes back on a fly ball by performing backflips. 

The OTT sessions are organized by “buckets,” or aspects of the fan experience, such as dugout shenanigans, pregame videos and creative dances. The Bananas own TikTok by so delightfully and intentionally embracing dance and dance routines in everything they do. The first-base coach is a dance choreographer. By creating for TikTok almost exclusively short dance videos, the Bananas have cultivated more than 3 million followers on the platform, which is to say more than 2 million more than any of Major League Baseball’s 30 ballclubs. 

Any company that puts “shenanigans” on the agenda has my respect. At several points in the book, I was reminded of Eliot and Barry Tatelman of Jordan’s Furniture in the Boston area. (I know Barry left long ago to pursue an acting and movie-producing career and that Eliot retired in April. But, Jordan’s will always be Eliot and Barry and a day in Bermuda to me.) The Tatelmans understand the priceless value of genuine fun in a corporate context, and they are among the most “creative” impresarios our industry has ever witnessed.

Another key to making OTT sessions work is Walt Disney’s notion of “plussing,” or building an idea until it becomes great. This starts with resisting the temptation to shoot down an idea and continues with replacing the impulse to swat it away with the drive to strengthen the original thought. “Plussing” it. Walt Disney plussed his way all the way to Disney World and beyond. 

“Success with idea generation is about volume,” wrote Cole, author of the book and the principal founder of the team.

Second idea: The secret is contrast

If you asked me what business TikTok is in, or any of the social media platforms for that matter, and you can throw in the AI chatbots, as well, my answer wouldn’t be social media or cheating on essay writing. It would be attention. These all are weapons of mass distraction. They want our attention, and they will do seemingly anything to get it, keep it, mine it and sell it. Furniture companies, too, are competing for attention, the one thing of which we all have the same finite amount.

To grab attention, the Bananas have determined that the secret is creating contrast. Cole asks in the book, “Why do (businesses) continually do the things that their customers hate?” I’ve asked myself this so many times. When the Budget rental car desk agent is pushing me to buy bumper-to-bumper comprehensive insurance with a rider for the scenario in which the rental is obliterated by a meteor or comet, coverage that more than doubles the cost of renting, I wonder in what world this same agent would welcome the fear tactics, pressure and guilt he is applying on me? The same world in which comets hurtle out of the night sky into a Kia Soul?

Thus, the Bananas pursue a Fans First, Entertain Always approach that seeks to eliminate friction for the fan and provide them with so much fun that they rediscover the wild-eyed wonder of their childhoods. This goal of contrast connects to creativity because it’s the idea generation that leads to the unique fan experience. Cole wants his staff to imagine something so different, so bizarre, so unusual that it grabs the attention and even imagination of the fans, including the millions following on TikTok. The Bananas are intentional about continuous improvement and staying fresh, which calls for a blend of choreography and spontaneity that has everyone guessing just what might happen next.

Third idea: Remove friction

Connected to the idea of creating contrast, the drive to remove friction led the Bananas to reconsider ticket fees, price gouging on parking, concessions, access to players and other problem areas in the overall fan experience. The key for Cole has been to put himself in the fans’ shoes, observe, then to stop doing what they hate. 

Importantly, the ambition to reduce friction is not a symptom of a transactional approach to baseball and entertainment, an approach that would have been merely the veneer of “Fans First.” In other words, the “Fans First” mission comes first, and it leads to moments that transcend transaction. One game night in 2022, Cole roamed the Bananas’ ballpark, Grayson Stadium in Savannah, Georgia, looking for points of friction. He spotted an 8-year-old crying with his parents. Asking why the kid was upset, his parents reported that they had arrived a tad late, depriving their son of the chance to participate in the pregame parade. Cole said, “Come with me.” He found a Bananas player and asked him to play catch with the young boy, transforming friction into an entire family’s fandom. 

Fourth idea: Don’t listen to the critics

Early reaction to the Savannah Bananas name, now so adored, was not good. “You guys are an embarrassment to the city,” one critic blasted on social media. It was Cole’s wife, Emily, who advised simply not to listen, knowing that trolls and critics are a vocal minority. Reaction inside the city of Savannah might have been at best mixed, but the rest of the country? We loved, loved, loved the name and logo. We reacted fast and frenetically, buying out all the merchandise as soon as it was available. 

Don’t listen to the critics when you know, as former MLB pitcher Jake Peavy said of the Bananas, “There’s nothing to hate here.”

Fifth idea: Cultivate a culture of mentorship

I don’t need to say much here because if I asked you to identify the mentors in your life and the role they have played in your success, you likely would gush and perhaps even get a little emotional. We all need someone who believes in us, someone who will listen even when we’re just talking crazy. We all need models of consistency and constancy. 

Sixth idea: Let smart people do their thing

The flip of benefiting from good mentors is knowing how and when to delegate. Cole writes that he does not care from where or from whom the ideas come, and he doesn’t one-up or co-opt people. Give smart people the autonomy and agency to make a difference. Ideas come from everyone in the organization, including and especially the players. The flaming bat, which instantly went viral on TikTok? A player’s idea, including how to make sure the fire extinguishes when the bat is dropped during the run to first base. 

The Banana-Nanas senior citizens dance team; the Man-nanas dad bod cheerleading squad; Princess Potassia, who greets young girls to the ballpark shrieking when they see a princess; and the afore-mentioned pitcher on stilts, Dakota Albritton. 

“We don’t make decisions based on revenue,” Cole wrote. “We’re a fans-first business — all the way.” 

He believes that if you build a loyal fan base, the rest of it will take care of itself.