Sunday, May 29, 2016

Love Your Losses

"Every losing trade is there to teach you something." - Brett Steenbarger "The Daily Trading Coach"

Analyzing outcomes is insufficient. Be specific and be detail-oriented. What went wrong? Why did it go wrong? How can we correct the problem? Create a 'play journal' or a spreadsheet to track corrections. 



Here's the link to the video instruction

Early data from Dean Oliver (Basketball on Paper: Rules and Tools for Performance Analysis) found turnovers to be the second most important determinant of outcome. 


That's still not enough. We need to verify that players understand the error and the correction. "Tell me in your words what I just explained." Then we need to close the loop with review of whether adjustments worked. 




"Prepare for every game as though you lost your last game." - Lon Kruger

For example, maybe we committed twenty turnovers. Were they traveling, fumbles, bad passes, violations, bad fouls? 

Some of the best companies set aside time for employees to brainstorm how to improve. Ideas like Gmail (Google) and Post It Notes (3M) came from time so reserved.

“What vulnerabilities do we have and what can we do to minimize them, to get around them, to survive them—and give ourselves a better chance to win?” - Bob Knight, The Power of Negative Thinking

For our teams to become successful, we must teach them not only what to do but what to stop doing. "Do more of what works and less of what doesn't."