I’m editing a fascinating book by business consultant Marc Strohlein, about how to tap hidden potential in a company or organization to improve its performance.

The book is coming out soon (I’ll keep you posted), and it’s very much on my mind. So is baseball – it’s October, after all, and I’m a big fan. So imagine my delight when I realized that events at the end of this year’s baseball season perfectly illustrate one of the points in Marc’s book.

On October 3, the last day of the 2012 regular season, the New York Yankees won their division, the first step toward qualifying to play in the World Series. They have the highest payroll in Major League Baseball (nearly $200 million), so their success was expected. As Sports Illustrated put it, their reaction was probably one of relief.

Same day, across the country, the Oakland A’s won their division, so they also qualified for the post-season playoffs. The difference? They have the second-lowest payroll in the majors, at just over $55 million. Nobody expected their success; in fact, a lot of people wrote them off in April, but the A’s didn’t give up. Their reaction to winning their division? Pure, unadulterated joy.

What does this have to do with Marc’s book? In it, he looks at employee motivation versus engagement, and says that engagement is better. You can motivate employees with bonuses and raises but you still might not get their best performance. When push comes to shove, it’s the truly engaged employees – the ones who do their best work because deep down they really want to, not because you pay them extra – who bring more energy to a company.

It sure worked for the Oakland A’s.