Player selection is one area where I might project a higher ceiling for one player than another whom I see has more skill. I'm biased toward high effort players and coachable (listeners) players. And I'm probably more likely to share my best decisions than my worst. Sometimes I'm too slow to make changes. Our egos cause us to underrepresent poor decisions and inhibit us from learning from mistakes.
Matthew Syed in Black Box Thinking shares a story of a surgeon and anesthesiologist with a dispute over whether a patient's instability relates to latex allergy, potentially life threatening. The surgeon refuses to change his gloves until the anesthesiologist threatens to call the dean of Johns Hopkins hospital...literally as the nurse is dialing. The belief and status of the surgeon was overruling good judgment.
The Boston Red Sox refused to try out Willie Mays. Racism meant more than performance. Abbie Conant won a blinded rehearsal for the Munich Philharmonic and endured years of the director trying to remove her for being a woman.
Cognitive dissonance afflicts us when our beliefs are contradicted by evidence. Our team played a variant of 'The System', selling out to play fast because I thought that suited our athleticism and lack of height. Like most coaches, I like to win but especially enjoy seeing players succeed.
Our process worked to an extent (21-4), but we struggled against height and zone teams with good transition defense. If we change nothing, then I anticipate having a similar or worse future. We didn't lose because of officials (attribution bias) or overindulging infallibility beliefs (confirmation bias), we lost because I couldn't prepare us well enough to make shots and defeat zones.
In Jim Collins' landmark Good to Great, he discusses the BRUTAL REALITY that prevents greatness. Often ego concerns and our loss of self-esteem through overconfidence and overcommitment becomes our undoing. Some leaders and performers are incapable of self doubt. We've all played ball with guys who call a foul when they miss a shot or watched tennis players call balls out habitually because they SEE them out. Investors stick with losers and sell winners (distribution bias) to our detriment.
We need flexible judgment. Remember the lyrics of Bon Jovi's Just Older, "You can't win until you're not afraid to lose." To play to win, we need enough ego strength to recognize when change is needed. When Steve Kerr adopted an assistant's recommendation to go small, that helped propel Golden State to a championship. When General Custer led forces into overwhelming resistance at Little Big Horn, his arrogance caused catastrophe.
Be smart enough and strong enough to make better choices.
